TIRANA, April 27 – Public concern over candidates running in the upcoming elections that have alleged criminal ties has grown after U.S. Ambassador Donald Lu said Monday the embassy had forward information to the major parties on candidates that might belong to that category.
It marked the first indication the international community expects political parties to stand by their statements on decriminalization of politics, a hot topic in the country’s political life after two MPs were recently arrested and charged in connection to criminal dealings.
The upcoming municipal elections mark a test for Albanian democracy, and Ambassador Lu said the U.S. government had allocated more than half a million dollars to monitor the June 21 municipal elections.
Lu encouraged Albanian journalists, NGOs and common citizens to ask for high standards in these elections.
“We praise the fact that on the list of candidates in these elections there is a large number of women candidates,” Lu said.
However, he added, the list of candidates proposed by different political parties also contained people with alleged criminal records.
The parliament has already created a special commission on decriminalization.
Last weekend, the head of the commission, Oerd Bylykbashi, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, submitted new proposed changes to the Electoral Code, noting that those who have criminal records will not be allowed to run in or participate in elections — local or general.
“These people can no longer be part of politics,” Bylykbashi said, adding the proposed amendments would “clean up Albanian politics” from such individuals.
The ruling Socialists say they are already applying proper filtering. For example, they decided not to rerun the incumbent mayor of Gramsh, who had recently been accused of hiding his assets from state auditors. He is running nonetheless, as a candidate of the small Communist Party.
