Albanian parties fail on electoral reform

TIRANA, May 16 – Digital ballot counting, formulae of the make-up of the Central Election Commission and the complaining process were the three issues which the two main political parties _ the governing Democratic party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the main opposition Socialist Party of Edi Rama _ failed to reach a consensus, thus giving an end to six months of work on the electoral reform. Damian Gjiknuri of the Socialists and Oerd Bylykbashi of the Democrats said Tuesday evening that everything remains in the hands of the parliament as the working period for the parliamentary working committee had come to an end.
Efforts to strike a deal in the parliamentary commission tasked with improving the electoral code fail at a time when there is so near the start of the process of selecting a new President.
Rama said that the country needs to reach a consensus on the electoral reform and the same call came from Berisha.But now that the mandate of a parliamentary commission to deal with electoral reform has come to an end the ruling majority and the opposition are far from reaching a deal.
The electoral reform was a priority, a main task that the country’s political class had agreed in its November deal.
“We cannot get the EU candidate) status unless we reach a deal on the electoral reform,” said Rama to the reporters on Wednesday.
Albania has suffered a long and tumultuous transition to democracy since it emerged from the Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha in 1990. No elections held since the collapse of the regime have met international standards and allegations of fraud and disputed results have been widespread.
Albania holds presidential election this year when the parliament votes for the new president. But the parliamentary elections next year are of fundamental importance for post-communist Albania.
Berisha blames the opposition for blocking reforms, while turning down some of their proposals as unacceptable.
The electoral fight was heightened this week when the OSCE-ODIHR experts turned down the Albanian politicians’ agreement for digital counting the ballots. The ODIHR experts said that cannot be held next year and it should start partially or in a pilot project in a big city. It said that installing the whole infrastructure for such a big project would likely ask up to three years.
But the political parties inthe country immediately reacted and tried to exploit such suggestions in their favor.
Democrats said they would stick to whatever the ODIHR experts suggested, while the Socialist opposition did not say directly it was not pleased with that suggestion.
There were also voices from two small allies of the opposition (Paskal Milo and Skender Gjinushi) directly accusing the ODIHR experts of working in Berisha’s favor with that suggestion.
OSCE’s Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth said, however, that ODIHR experts had offered recommendations and “not commandments” and it is up to the Albanian political parties to decide whether to accept them or not.
It now remains in the hands of the parliament, the lawmakers and again the leadership of the two political groupings to decide. They have shown they are not capable of reaching any consensus without an international assistance.
“Electoral reform and free and fair elections are fundamental issues which should be at Albania’s attention in the months to come,” said visiting Danish European AffairsMinister Nikolai Wammen on Wednesday.
He said that the country should achieve progress on this issue until May 24.
The elections in Albania still do not meet all the international democratic standards according to the OSCE. Both the parliamentary election of 2009 and the local election of 2011 were observed by the OSCE, and although the elections marked tangible progress and various improvements, the observers noted that these improvements were overshadowed by the politicization of technical aspects of the process.
So, does the electoral future remain in their hands, or we shall see an increase of the international interference, assistance to urge them come to that point? That remains to be seen in the next days.
It is very likely that everything on such an issue should be concluded until the next week as then there starts the next ‘political fight” _ the election of the new president.
Wollfarth also said that the Electoral Code should not be seen as the only factor determining success or unsuccessful elections. In my view, sufficient political will, we so often need to talk about, will play a crucial role in the conduct and outcome of the elections. Political will can bring success even when there are legal shortcomings.