Elections likely set for June 23

TIRANA, Nov. 08 – President Bujar Nishani on Monday convened all leaders of the parliamentary political parties in a meeting on advice for the parliamentary elections’ date next year.
It is very likely the date will be June 23, as most of the political parties preferred that.
It should also be noted that the meeting were held separately with the representatives of each party.
It was probably one of the rare moments till now that the president is trying to mediate something along the political lines.
Nishani was elected in June only with the votes of the governing Democratic Party-led coalition and the opposition said that was a unilateral decision as the governing Democrats were unable to find a compromise.
After meeting all the political parties Nishani also met with the European Commission delegation Ambassador Ettore Sequi that afternoon to discuss in general on the country’s efforts to comply with the requests for the candidate status. Finding a necessary consensus seems very hard a job for Nishani, at least at this moment when the opposition still considers him a representative of the governing Democrats and Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
For the moment the European Union is asking the Albanian politics to fulfill the last three reforms needed so that the EU’s Council of Ministers gives the formal okay in early December.
The Albanian parliament has time until later this month to pass three laws which ask for at least three-fifth of its 140 votes from the lawmakers. That figure cannot be achieved without the consensus from the opposition Socialists.
At this moment the country’s political life is focused at this issue.
On one side, Berisha repeats the calls to the opposition to pass the three laws _ on the Supreme Court, the administration and the parliamentary procedures. He also made the same call Wednesday saying that the country’s issues should be above those of a political party. he was trying to reflect what the US. President Barrack Obama and his rival candidate Mitt Romney said in their winning and concession speeches, that is, the country’s issues are above all and they should not be partisan in the future efforts. That was also stressed from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in her visit to Tirana last week.
But the opposition Socialists, on the other side, say that it is useless to pass laws that are normally not carried out, implemented. They always refer to a number of court verdicts on the local authorities in the western district of Fier, where they had won but were contested from the Democrats and the local power there is still unclear despite the court decisions.
The Socialists have said they will not pass any law until the government and the Democrats agree with the court verdicts.
Berisha tried to make a compromise Wednesday offering to the Socialists a vote of confidence for each member of Fieri’s council, parliament. The answer from the Socialists was the same, referring to the court verdicts. They said why they should pass laws at a time when the government does not agree to respect the existing ones.
Who is right and who is wrong? That is not so easy for common Albanians to evaluate, unless they are militants of one or the other political party.
What it seems to be the next step is an increasingly intensified pressure on the opposition Socialists to pass the laws so that Europe gives the formal okay for the country’s candidate status.
For the moment the governing Democrats are trying to exploit such a stopover politically and always blame the opposition for trying to block the country’s integration into the European Union.
Of course, a normal mind would not agree to that opinion because the opposition has also expressed itself very explicitly that they are so much in favor of EU membership.
It seems that the electoral campaign has already started and not only with the regular meetings that leaders of both main political parties hold every week all around the country, but also in the daily agenda reflected in all the media.