International community urges debate on electoral reforms, gender equality

TIRANA, March 11- Officials of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has welcomed proposals on electoral reform and called for dialogue and cooperation among all parties involved.
Albania’s political parties have put forward a set of electoral reform proposals that aim to improve the country’s electoral system to address shortcomings identified in the reports of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
“The OSCE encourages all parties to debate the proposals and come to the widest possible cross-party agreement on the electoral system best suited to the Albanian reality,” said OSCE head Ambassador Robert Bosch, Albanian. “The OSCE Presence is ready to provide technical support to the Assembly, but it is the national political actors who must decide on how to move forward.”
The last proposal from the main opposition Socialist Party has been widely approved in principle by the governing Democratic Party but has been strongly condemned by the nation’s smaller political parties saying it favors the larger parties.
The new proposal is a proportional system with closed lists of candidates representing 12 geographical areas for electing 140 lawmakers to Parliament.
The organization also urged Albania to immediately approve a draft law on Gender Equality in Society recently submitted to the parliament.
Bosch said that, “This draft law contains many innovative features such as the appointment of Gender Equality Focal Points at all levels of the administration, as well as the introduction of quotas in decision-making bodies.”
“I am particularly pleased to be able to say that these new changes are the result of over two years of close co-operation between the Directorate of Equal Opportunities of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM and the OSCE Presence.”
Ambassador Bosch said that it was important to raise awareness among decision-makers over the need for special measures to be introduced that would promote and protect women’s participation in elections.
The OSCE, together with UNIFEM and the Council of Europe, have recently supported projects to assist women’s participation in election processes. Bosch encouraged all parliamentarians to do their best to provide women with the sufficient safeguards to enable their long-term participation in politics and public life, adding the OSCE was ready, jointly with its national and international partners, to provide further technical assistance in drafting secondary legislation to allow for the full implementation of the law on Gender Equality in Society.