The Ombudsperson, hostage of party clashes

Latter interviews “exclude” potential candidates
The Ombudsperson, hostage of party clashes

Hetem Mazrekaj, Gani Mulliqi and Lulzim Tafa are three potential candidates for the post of the Ombudsperson.
The Commission for Legislative and Constitutional Matters supported three candidates for the post of the Ombudsperson, recommended by a panel of the Assembly of Kosovo.
So far, this issue has been reviewed several times because of the proper definition of the procedure, but, according to our sources, the entire development involved party interests.
The latter interviews revealed a selection of new candidates by excluding candidates who have previously competed for this position. According to the statements of the members of the Commission, new candidates were selected based on [evaluation] points that they had received during their interviews.
The selected competitors for the post of the Ombudsperson are Hetem Mazrekaj, Gani Mulliqi and Lulzim Tafa.
Some candidates stated that the whole delay in the selection process has a common constituent, meaning political interferences. Even the name of the current Ombudsperson, Hilmi Jashari, was not included in the short list of three candidates.

Nowicki sent a letter to the head of the legislative
Recently, the former Ombudsperson in Kosovo, Marek Antoni Nowicki, addressed a letter to the President of the Assembly of Kosovo, Mr. Berisha, in which he raised his concern about the selection procedure for the Ombudsperson. While exercising this duty, he recalls his engagement in establishing an institution that would serve Kosovo in the future and also prepare professional staff for carrying out the institution’s responsibilities after his departure. “Local staff members have a moral right to lead this institution based on trainings and experiences gained during all these years of functioning of the institution” said Nowicki.
He considers that the legislative has to take a fairly responsible decision, which should not be dominated by political or similar issues.
“The post of the Ombudsperson should be held by a highly professional and moral qualified person, who would have knowledge in the field of human rights”, said Nowicki in his letter addressed to the President of the Assembly, Mr. Berisha.
He also said that the Ombudsperson should be a skilled person and gain respect of the entire Kosovo population, both Albanians and minorities.
“The Ombudsperson should be able to make objections concerning any kind of pressure regardless their sources. He should play a unique role in the complicated process of finding the way for reconciliation and mutual understanding as a precondition to establishing a joint hope for the future,” said Nowicki.

The results of the interview
The number two of the Commission for Legislative and Constitutional matters, who was also member of the interview panel, Mr. Saddudin Berisha, said that the [names of the] three candidates who won the majority number of votes will proceed further to the chairmanship and later on to the Assembly for voting. Even if some voices state that so far, the delay has been a result of disagreements between political parties, Berisha denied such allegations, stating that the process was carried out based on a regular procedure as adopted by Assembly.
“The decision was unanimous and the criteria were the same for all candidates”, said Berisha. According to him, all candidates who competed were interviewed except for two candidates who did not participate due to lack of interest.
“There was no selection, but all candidates were interviewed except the two candidates who did not show any interest in being interviewed”, said Berisha.
He stated that the current Ombudsperson was also interviewed, but that the three selected candidates got higher numbers of votes.
original article from the newspaper