Meta’s LSI threatens with protests

TIRANA, Nov 3 The opposition Socialist Movement for Integration of the former premier, Ilir Meta, considered to be the third biggest political party in Albania, threatened to protest the compromise reached by the governing Democratic Party and the main opposition Socialist Party to exclude small political parties from monitoring the electoral process.
In the most aggressive language used in recent times in Albanian politics, LSI officials threatened to wage violent protests. They held a large meeting Monday.
Meta said they would not allow the creation of another parliament with fake votes, mentioning the irregular voting held in the last elections that saw 40 lawmakers who had not won their districts being seated in Parliament.
Other leaders openly said they would not be stopped in their democratic fight even if weapons were used against them.
They called the new waging of a political war a “democratic revolution.”
The LSI was the first to oppose its ally, the Socialists, of cooperating with the governing Democrats in April to make constitutional amendments for the electoral code, turning it into a regional proportional system. They say the new code is directed against smaller political parties, trying to reserve parliamentary seats only for the two top political parties.
In a last compromise, the parliamentary commission in charge of the electoral reform foresees the exclusion of small parties like LSI from being represented in the Electoral Commission, an institution that should manage the electoral process and vote counting.
Vote counting had been the most criticized part of the election in Albania.
The LSI was founded in 2004 by a group of former disgruntled Socialist party officials. During the 2005 general elections they received 8.4 percent of the votes, or five lawmakers, in the 140-seat parliament.