Election commission decides against referendum

TIRANA, June 8 – Albania’s Central Electoral Commission decided against holding a referendum on a series of constitutional reforms, as asked by smaller opposition parties.
The commission rejected the request from the Protect the Constitution Committee, a civic organization recently formed under the aegis of the Socialist Movement for Integration of former Prime Minister Ilir Meta.
The two largest political parties in Albania, the governing centre-right Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the opposition Socialist Party headed by the Mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, made the changes earlier this year amid criticism from other smaller political parties fearing their place in a new parliament.
The changes basically set a new regional proportional electoral system and set standards for electing the president and the prosecutor general.
The reforms transform parliamentary voting from a “first past the post” system in which voters selected individual candidates to a system based on regional proportional representation as voters no longer cast ballots for candidates of their choice, but only for parties, which then nominate their representatives to parliament.
The smaller political parties fear they will lose under the new rules.
The parliament has not formally voted the changes of the system yet, though the two main parties, which have the majority of the seats there, will likely do that before the session ends in July.