TIRANA, July 5 – After two years of squabbling over the next president, the two leaders of the country’s main parties at last met Thursday evening after they returned from a ceremony at the embassy of the United States.
They parliamentary political parties , seven of the governing Democratic Party-led coalition of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and five within the Socialist Party-led coalition of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama, met late Thursday evening to agree on further high-level talks and a vote for the new president on Sunday.
Earlier that week the two main political parties submitted lists of potential candidates _ but immediately rejected the other side’s proposals.
After the two-hour meeting Thursday they agreed that delegations led by Berisha and Rama would meet Friday to begin negotiating on a consensual president and other major reforms along with the country’s integration efforts into NATO and the European Union.
The Socialists have threatened to boycott the presidential election unless they are allowed to present their own nominee. The party argues that when it was in government in 2002, it allowed the Democrats to present Moisiu as a consensus candidate, and has now demanded it be allowed to present its own choice for the post.
