Kosovo MPs failed for the 52nd time on Friday to constitute the country’s parliament, with a Constitutional Court deadline to do so expiring on Saturday – and the possibility of new elections looming.

A final attempt to elect a speaker will be made on Saturday. If MPs fail again, no fresh attempt can be made until August 8, when the Constitutional Court will rule on what happens next.

New parliamentary elections “are always a good solution”, the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Memli Krasniqi, said after refusing to vote to establish a committee for a secret ballot on electing a speaker.

Krasniqi said his party will await the Constitutional Court ruling and that it “hopes there will be a new verdict by August 8”.

Kosovo has been without a parliament since elections in February. The winning party in the February election, Vetevendosje, has the right to propose the speaker. But, as Vetevendosje has continued to insist on the same candidate who has been unable to attract enough votes, parliament has remained in deadlock since it first met.

A government cannot be formed without the election of a speaker and deputies, and the current government can only function with limited capacities. This led to the intervention by the Constitutional Court.

On Thursday, the Constitutional Court imposed a temporary ban on MPs making further moves towards constituting parliament until August 8, based on requests by MPs from the PDK and Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK.

MPs continued to trade accusations on Friday.

Hekuran Murati, acting Minister of Finance, from February election winner Vetevendosje, said his party does not support new elections and blamed the opposition for not voting to form a committee for a secret ballot.

“We’ve offered a compromise, we can return to an open vote [for speaker] without issue, but they are refusing it,” Murati said, recalling that the Constitutional Court had ruled that both types of voting, open and secret, were legal.

“The best thing would be to take away the mandate of those [MPs] who refused to vote [for the committee] and fulfill their constitutional obligation,” he said.

Vetevendosje sought to form a committee to hold a secret ballot in May, after several failed attempts to elect their candidate for speaker, acting Minister of Justice Albulena Haxhiu.

Albin Kurti, caretaker Prime Minister and Vetevendosje leader, in recent days met Fatmir Limaj, leader of the Social Democrat Initiative, Nisma, in an attempt to end the prolonged deadlock.

Kurti’s party has 48 seats – well short of the 61 needed to choose a speaker. But, with Nisma’s three seats, and a potential ten more from non-Albanian party representatives, he might potentially install his candidate. But one problem is that Limaj himself wants to be made speaker, in exchange for supporting a Kurti-led government.