Constitutional Court sides with small parties on Electoral Code

TIRANA, June 22 – The Constitutional Court on Monday declared unconstitutional two articles of the electoral code which had negatively affected the ability of small political parties to run in equal terms in parliamentary elections.
The articles required political parties that had no deputies in parliament to gather 10,000 signatures in order to put their candidates on the electoral ballot, and that the signatures be submitted individually by the electorate backing the lawmakers’ list.
The appeal over the legality of the two articles was filed by the Popular Union of Albania Pensioners Party that was disqualified from the electoral race in the parliamentary elections held last June.
The electoral code, which was amended in 2008 as a compromise between the Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Socialist Party headed by Tirana mayor Edi Rama, has been contested by smaller political parties, both on the left and the right.
Lawmakers of the Socialist Movement for Integration, which is now part of the governing center-right coalition, entered a hunger strike at the previous parliament to protest against the constitutional amendments. They claimed the amendments aimed at taking them out of the parliament.
Small parties claim the code, which imposes a regional proportional system for the selection of members of parliament, unfairly favors large political parties or coalition members tied to them.