Election observers finish mission

TIRANA, June 2 – The OSCE/ODIHR team of international observers is in the last days of the stay in the country after the end of its monitoring of the June 23 national polls.
Team leader Conny McCormack is holding her last official meetings with the country players.
On Tuesday she met with Foreign Minister Aldo Bumci and acting Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
McCormack expressed her thanks for the cooperation they had with the local players and the smooth way the mission worked during all the time.
She said that monitoring from the international observers is a fundamental element in guaranteeing the transparency and accountability of the election process.
Berisha, who conceded defeat last week, highly evaluated the standards followed during the polls and the bug turnout (more than 53 per cent or some 1.72 million voters).
McCormack evaluated very positively the holding of the voting praising the increase of the number of polling stations to avoid the long waiting queues. She also said that the counting process had significant progress too.
She said it was important this fact as it showed the maturity of the Albanian democracy.
But during her meetings McCormack has also suggested amendments of the election code.
There are different options starting with the regional proportional system that may change into a national one or a corrected one.
The certification of the election results still remains to be seen not only by the international community but also from the Albanian voters.
For the moment the Central Election Commission is operating only with four out of seven members. Three of them, affiliated or nominated by the then-opposition Socialists resigned after one of their colleagues was fired from the Democratic Party-dominated parliament in April following the move of his party (Socialist Movement for Integration) from the government coalition into the opposition one.
The CEC cannot certify election reposts as it need a qualified majority, or at least a 5-2 vote for that. It remains to be seen whether the Electoral College will certify results for each zone. Or if the CEC vacant places will be filled these days, something hard to be dreamed of.
McCormack said that the CEC situation is a much discussed one and considered that a political one at a time when that had to be an administrative one.
The ODIHR mission will make recommendations to resolve that.
McCormack also said they will recommend how to make the counting process faster. She said that often the counting members of the groups stopped working without any good reason.
It is true that elections this time were much better than last ones, four years ago and especially those two years ago for the local municipalities and communes. But Albania has yet to hold really free and fair election process, where politics does not interfere.
It is still far away compared to other countries where elections are administered by the interior ministry and in which political interference is out of discussion.
The ODIHR final report will come out eight weeks after elections.