TIRANA, Oct. 20 – Ahead of a meeting of the Special Committee on Electoral Reform, representatives of the Socialist Movement for Integration have announced they plan to recommend an open-list electoral system and a reduction in the number MPs of future parliaments.
“Voters should be more aware on who is going to represent them. This is a practice that has been implemented in other countries as well,” said Petrit Vasili, the head of the SMI Parliamentary Group. “The roundtable at the Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reform is a very good way to discuss on the matter and hopefully agree on it.”
Open lists would allow the voters to vote directly on the MPs they want in parliament rather than a closed list decided by the party leader as is currently done.
The current system is widely seen limiting direct democracy by critics who blame it for allowing party leaders to give parliamentary seats to people with dubious backgrounds and who might not work in their voters’ interests. Party leaders also silence critics within their parties by kicking them out of the lists.
“The people must be the one to choose,” Vasili said.
However, Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has party leader has full control of who ends up on MP lists, opposes the open-list system, saying it would be “too complicated to implement.”
“Personally, I am against open lists, but this matter requires a broad discussion. I favor the implementation of OSCE ODIHR recommendations,” Rama said.
Democrats indicate support for changing system
The main opposition Democratic Party indicated Thursday it too is not happy with the current system. Its leader, Lulzim Basha, said the party he leads was complicit in creating a regional-proportional system that aimed to eliminate thugs from politics and improve the quality of lawmakers.
Instead the opposite has happened, Basha said, accusing Prime Minister Rama of “using his powers as party leader to go on a recruiting spree that brought criminals to parliament.
“We will look at all the ways and methods the system can be improved to … empower voters,” Basha said.
The open lists suggestions was met with skepticism by the opposition Democrats as well. Secretary General of the Democratic Party Arben Ristani said that open lists pave the way to the amendment of the electoral system.
“There is broad discussion about the vote through open lists. We already have a proportional representation system at place. If you favor such practice of vote, then why not go back to the previous zone-based election system,” Ristani said in a post in social media, referring to the practice of each MP representing a small area and being elected directly in that area. Currently a group of MPs is elected in each region to represent that region.
SMI seeks clear voter-candidate link
The chairman of the Socialist Movement for Integration, Ilir Meta was the first to launch the idea of practicing open lists vote during a seminar organized by the Central Election Commission.
“I believe that one of the problems of the Electoral Code is that the MP candidate lists must be open. It links the voter to the candidate. I support such initiative regardless of the difficulties in the implementation process. At the current stage we have a two party, three party or even a four party parliamentary system and this is not very healthy,” Meta said.
The 140 members of the Parliament of Albania are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve four-year terms. Since the end of the single-party Communist practice Albania has utilized seven different electoral of 40 top-up or party list seats at the national level off of closed party lists.
In 2009, Albania switched to a proportional system with seats allocated within 12 regional constituencies. In order to qualify to receive any seats within a regional constituency, a single party must win 3% and a coalition 5% of the vote within the constituency. Seats are distributed to winning parties and coalitions by the d’Hondt highest average method of proportional representation. Mandates won by coalitions are distributed to all parties within the coalition (regardless of whether the party met the threshold) by the Sainte-Laguà« highest average system of proportional representation. Lists are closed with candidates elected in order off the party list until the party has run out of mandates.
