Albania to elect new president on May 30

TIRANA, May 24 – Albania’s Parliament on Thursday decided to convene May 30 to elect the country’s new president.
Lawmaker Astrit Patozi of the governing Democratic Party said the parliament will hold separate sessions on the presidential election so that not to interfere in its normal working agenda.
Albania elects the president for a five-year term in its 140-seat Parliament that should give at least three-fifth, or 84 of the votes in the first three rounds and only 71 votes in the last two.
If there is no winner the country goes to early parliamentary election. No candidates were formally presented in Thursday’s meeting of the parliamentary group heads.
Until now it has been only Fatos Nano, former leader of the opposition Socialist party and ex-Prime Minister, together with Neritan Ceka, leader of the Democratic Alliance Party and now an adviser to Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who have offered their names for the post.
On Thursday Berisha also gets entitled to negotiate on the new name for the post. He is supposed to meet with Ilir Meta of the Socialist Movement for Integration, Fatmir Mediu of the Republican Party and the Unity and Justice Party of the Cam community who have lawmakers part of his governing coalition.
Meta, the main partner among them, has made it clear recently that the new president should be a figure accepted by all the sides.
Meanwhile the international community has made it clear that the political parties should reach a compromise for the new name. The election of the president is an important test for Albania’s aspiration to join the European Union.
But why is the president that important?
Albania is a parliamentary republic where the president has generally protocol rights. But that is not totally clean that way.
The president is the commander of the armed forces, thus becoming the main role in the nomination of the army generals and more. That is the case with the High Council of Justice which the presidents lead.
But the president is also the person, the institution that elects the head of the secret intelligence police and also the new prosecutor general. Of course they are then voted at the parliament. But the president is also entitled to decree once all the laws passed by the parliament.
That means that the president has some powers that affect many areas in the country, especially the judiciary. And that may explain the reasons why all the political groupings, starting from the governing Democrats, are that interested for the new name.
Besides Albania has also surpassed the time limit, May 24, which the European Union wanted it to compete the electoral and parliamentary reforms.
It seems that both main political groupings _ the governing Democrats and main opposition Socialists _ have not been able to reach a compromise on the way the votes will be counted and the seventh member of the central election commission. These remain the two issues of dispute.
The OSCE/ODIHR experts advised the Albanianparliamentarians that passing on immediately to a total digital vote count was not possible and they suggested pilot projects in separate cities. That sparked or renewed the political debate with the Democrats seemingly supporting such an idea while the opposition sticking to their stand on digital voting. The central election member that could make the difference in the vote and also the way of co0mpaling during the process were the other issues of contest.
It is not clear whether they will, at all, or when they have planned to reach a conclusion and a compromise.
Meanwhile next w4eek the lawmakers will have one or a few names running for the post of the president. Until now they don’t have one as any candidate needs to have handed over the proposal made by at least 20 lawmakers.