Kosovo’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday ordered MPs to elect a new head of state by October 6 to avoid new snap elections – which would be the fourth parliamentary polls in two years.

The order comes ten days after the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, filed a complaint, alleging that parliament had exceeded the deadline for its inauguration.

“The 60-day deadline for the election of a President started on August 8 and will expire on October 6,” the court said.

The court rejected the PDK’s request to halt the work of parliament in the meantime and declare the vote on a new government unlawful. It declared parliament already inaugurated and ordered MPs to elect the  fifth and final deputy speaker “as soon as possible”.

On September 14, the PDK complained to the court that the inauguration of parliament a day before had violated the rules, while one day later it asked the court to assess whether the parliamentary vote that re-elected Albin Kurti as Prime Minister was valid.

The PDK claims Kurti’s ruling Vetevendosje party violated the 30-day deadline to inaugurate parliament and that the assembly cannot be considered inaugurated until all five deputy speakers are elected.

Prior to this submission, the PDK withdrew its candidate for the post of deputy speaker, while four others were elected. The court has now ruled that parliament must elect the PDK candidate.

Kurti was re-elected Prime Minister by MPs at a session boycotted by the opposition parties. A narrow majority of 62 MPs out of 120 voted for Kurti’s new cabinet. Eight MPs from the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista voted against.

If parliament fails to elect a new President by October 6, new elections will be called within 45 days.

In late August, Vetevendosje’s Kurti and the head of the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, Lumir Abdixhiku, agreed on Bekim Sejdiu, a former Constitutional Court judge and diplomat, for the President’s post.

But Sejdiu withdrew from the race on September 14, following disagreements within the LDK parliamentary group over his candidacy.

For a vote electing the President to be valid, at least 80 out of 120 MPs must be present in the chamber. If the first two rounds of voting fail, the third round requires only a simple majority of MPs to elect the President – but at least 80 of them still need to present in the chamber.

Kosovo has been without a President since April 4, when Vjosa Osmani’s five-year term ended. Parliament speaker Albulena Haxhiu from Vetevendosje is serving as Acting President.

Opposition parties had claimed that Vetevendosje may have been preparing the ground for snap elections to be held at the end of December, when many members of the Kosovo diaspora, which mostly supports Kurti, come back to Kosovo for the holidays. However, under the new ruling, any snap elections would have to be held by mid-November.

Perparim Gruda, an MP from the PDK, said that the court’s verdict shows that “the constitution cannot be adapted to the interests of the moment”.

“Vetevendosje could not shift the constitutional deadlines according to its political interest and push the country towards elections on December 27, as it intended,” Gruda said.