Ad hoc parliamentary committee for the electoral process

TIRANA, Jan 20 – Following an opposition request, the governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha agreed to create an ad hoc parliamentary commission that would monitor procedures linked to the elections in June.
That means they will check when twice-listed names, some 50,000, have been removed from the voters’ list, the continuation of the identity cards, the creation of the new central election commission and all other issues linked to the process.
During the first parliamentary session Monday, Kastriot Islami of the main opposition Socialist party said that the creation of an ad hoc committee would clarify many doubts and also help push the electoral process ahead.
Earlier on Monday Socialist leader Edi Rama expressed his concern regarding the electoral process.
Rama accused the government of bearing responsibility for correcting the voters’ list and the issuing of the new identity cards.
The Socialists insisted that those persons, some 740,000, who have no passports, should be given priority when issuing identity cards.
Berisha reacted immediately, acknowledging the problem and advising the interior ministry to follow that process, as the Socialists requested.
The next day, Astrit Patozi of the Democrats’ parliamentary group also supported the idea of the ad hoc committee and said the committee would have co-chairmen, offering one post to the opposition Socialist in order to show the transparency of the process.
Albania is to hold general parliamentary elections June 28 based upon a new regional proportional voting system.