Berisha urges electoral reform

TIRANA, July 11 – Just as it seems that the May 8 local elections are finally in the past after the final verdict of the Electoral College which put the governing Democrats’ candidate Lulzim Basha in the mayoral position of Tirana, Prime Minister Sali Berisha moved on to another related step: future reforms for the electoral code.
It has become very clear now that the electoral amendments made in 2008 both by the Democrats and the main opposition Socialists were not a good move, having some negative consequences on the process of the polls since then.
Those problems became clear in 2009 at the general elections and also at this May’s local ones.
It would be expected that the opposition would be the prime factor asking for electoral reforms.
Yet at this moment it is the governing Democrats and their leader pushing for them. Why?
For the moment it seems that the Democrats need to move ahead, look forward to the next parliamentary polls which are in two years and also try to forget some of the difficulties they have had in the last two years when the opposition has held continuous protests against their alleged manipulation of the electoral process.
Berisha called on the opposition to join efforts to improve the electoral code, a request that has been also mentioned often by various diplomats of the international community.
While this is certainly a necessity, the opposition Socialists have yet to clear other problems before addressing electoral reformخamely, they need to accept the results of the local polls.