Kosovo’s parliament has convened three times in less than 24 hours in an attempt to elect a new president by a soon-to-expire deadline, only for the lack of a quorum to halt proceedings.

Failure to elect a new president will automatically trigger the announcement of new elections within 45 days, which would be the second time Kosovo voters head to polling stations within months of the last December 28 election.

“Despite my calls yesterday [Monday] and today to MPs to be present, as you can see, they are not here,” parliament speaker Albulena Haxhiu told the session that started on Tuesday but was interrupted by the lack of a quorum.

Only ruling Vetevendosje party and its coalition partner MPs were present for Tuesfday’s vote, while opposition MPs staged a boycott. For the vote on a president to be valid, at least 80 out of 120 MPs must be present in the chamber.

“I consider that it has been sufficiently clear that opposition has no other goal than a blockade,” Vetevendosje’s leader, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, said.

The mandate of former President Vjosa Osmani ended on April 4. Several months before Osmani’s term ended, she expressed the wish to run for a second term. But Albin Kurti’s Vetevendosje party, which backed her for her first mandate, instead proposed its own candidates – Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca and MP Fatmire Mulhaxha Kollcaku.

On March 5, when the Assembly failed to elect her successor, Osmani dissolved parliament. But the Constitutional Court overturned Osmani’s decree and gave MPs 34 more days to choose a head of state and avoid new elections, which become inevitable if a new president is not elected by April 28.

Seeing no way to get opposition support, Konjufca and Mulhaxha withdrew their candidacies on Monday and hours later Vetevendosje came out with two more surprise names – Feride Rushiti, a civil society activist, and Hatixhe Hoxha, a former MP.

In the first round of the vote, Rushiti won 63 votes, far short of the 80 needed, in a move that stirred angry opposition and civil society reactions, accusing Kurti of attempting a “constitutional coup”.

“Any attempt to avoid the constitutional order and elect a president with a limited number of MPs present is a clear violation of the Constitution and deformation of constitutional principles,” the Kosovo Democratic Institute, a Pristina-based think tank, said.

The opposition Democratic league of Kosovo, LDK, said Vetevendosje’s attempt to elect a president without the required quorum “initiated the overturn of Kosovo’s constitutional order”.

“There will be political, institutional and national accountability for this action,” the LDK said in a statement.

Since the Constitutional Court verdict on March 25, which gave MPs another month to elect a new president, Kurti and opposition leaders have not agreed on a consensual figure for president. Over the weekend, Vetevendosje called on the PDK and LDK to come together on a list of three candidates, an offer which was rejected first hand.

Vetevendosje said it was willing to withdraw its candidacies for president if the two opposition parties agree to come up with a list of three candidates for the post, as the country entered the final 48 hours of the constitutional deadline to elect a president or hold new elections.

“These three candidates should be unifying figures, with high civic and national integrity and a proven contribution to professional and social life, but also outside of political life,” Vetevendosje said after a meeting.

In a counter-offer, LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku for the first time mentioned ex-President Osmani as his party’s preference.

“If you want a political agreement with the LDK, then talk with us … We can propose Vjosa Osmani if you guarantee 66 votes for her,” Abdixhiku said.