Blame game continues, despite ODIHR’s final report

TIRANA, Aug. 18 – Albania is still on vacation with politics mainly covering what the international election observing mission said about the May 8 municipal polls.
The opposition Socialists continue to repeat that holding free and fair, democratic elections are fundamental to the country’s development of democracy. They accuse the government for manipulating the last two elections and say they are determined to change that.
How? For the moment, the SP is suggesting constitutional amendments on the electoral reforms. They say that starting from the election of the new president next year there should be a different form.
The opposition Socialists have started to create the working groups for their proposals and during September they are expected to complete such a platform to be introduced at their convention in October.
The Democrats, in the meantime, call on the Socialists to cooperate with them on the new electoral reform which should be ready for the 2013 elections.
The Democrats, on their side, deny any accusation of the opposition and also turn down the idea of new constitutional amendments. Instead the Democrats say they should stick to the electoral reform and offer ideas on how to address it.
Nothing positive could result from such a debate, still so vague at this holiday moment.
As usual it will be the mediation of the international factor to take both sides to a positive end. Western ambassadors in Tirana call on Socialist opposition and center-right ruling majority to initiate talks on electoral reform. Ambassadors of the EU, U.S. and OSCE have called on Albania’s political leadership to launch work on electoral reforms following the disputed Tirana mayoral race.