EU “No” to Early Elections

BRUSSELS, May 24 – The European Union told Albania Thursday that the entire political system, including all political parties, should work to elect the next president with consensus.
Brussels, where Prime Minister Sali Berisha has gone to take part in the NATO ambassadors meeting and also meet with EU officials, is against holding new elections in Albania, a threat that is mandated if the parliament does not elect the president next month.
Europe also told Albanian politicians to speed up efforts for electoral reform.
That was made clear after Berisha met with EC Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who said at a joint news conference that the Albanian political parties should sit down in a roundtable and reach consensus for a new president.
Berisha said he was for a consensual president and that he also was ready to sit down with the opposition to reach agreement on a candidate.
In a clear sign that finding a president through consensus was a precondition for the country’s integrating future, Rehn said Europe would assist Albania with 200 million euros in the next three years.
Ylli Bufi, deputy parliament Speaker and a member of the opposition Socialist Party, was accompanying Berisha as well. Bufi said the opposition would support all the required reforms, including a consensual president, to assure the country’s efforts to become a member in the EU bloc.
Albania’s president is to be elected with at least three-fifth, or 84 votes, of the 140-seat parliament next month. If the parliament fails to elect a president in five rounds the country goes to new parliamentary elections.