Election reform at a standstill

TIRANA, May 9 – The governing Democratic party and the main opposition Socialist party are supposed to end their process of the electoral reform amendments in the parliamentary group by mid-May.
But the recent moves when both sides disagreed on the way of counting the ballots, following a previous deal on a digital counting, have shown that the road in that path seems to be very hard.
Unless they go back to their previous deal on the digital counting it is very likely they will not catch the timing to conclude the work of the working group until next week, as they had pledged to the international institutions, mainly the OSCE that has been closely following and assisting the process.
Meanwhile the small political groupings, that managed to get a deal from the two big on a national proportional system for next year’s parliamentary polls, have shown impatience fearing that the two big put words far from the deeds.
The small political parties have been calling on both the two main political parties that they should speed up their steps in the working group and should not forget what they pledged to them.
The electoral reform does not seem to have covered a significant place in the daily agenda this week, much put in a shadow from the presidential race.
Meanwhile the political game continues.
There have been rumors here and there of possible fresh elections this summer after the presidential election.
That seems to be more a provocation from the governing Democrats to the opposition Socialists. Why?
Because if the country goes to early parliamentary elections this year the electoral reform is not near the end and that means the old electoral law is to be applied. That is also bad news to the smaller political parties.
While the opposition Socialists would not like such parliamentary voting, they still are tainted by the election idea and throwing away Berisha’s governing one year early.
Though it would not be a good idea to take the country at such an economic situation, for sure. Would they be ready to make such a drastic change, often with difficult reforms, to keep the country away from the negative impact of the global financial crisis?
But despite all these it seems that no one would be interested in early elections this year. They have enough trouble with the presidential race.