TIRANA, July 14 – The agreement on the electoral reform which took place on June 5, mediated by the U.S., the EU and the U.K., has been broken, as the Socialist Party officially agreed to an open-list system. The draft was approved on Tuesday and will now be passed to the plenary session of the Albanian Parliament, where 94 votes are needed for the Constitutional amendments.
The SP and the parliamentary opposition agreed to an open-list system, which stipulates that the voters will be able to choose 2/3 of the deputies in the parties’ list, while 1/3 will be decided by the political parties based on gender representation. Through this agreement, clauses 1 and 2 in articles 64 and 68 of the Albanian Constitution will be amended in order to provide open lists, but will make it impossible from now on to enter the elections with pre-electoral coalitions.
The current system favors coalitions by giving more value to the votes of small parties under the umbrella of a large party. However, in the current political system, avoiding coalitions seems to suit the Socialist Party better.
“Unilateral constitutional changes”
The government’s decision to support the open list system was strongly opposed by the non-parliamentary opposition.
The Democratic Party stated that “the attempt to break the June 5 Agreement, achieved with the full support and mediation of the US-EU strategic partners, is the sole responsibility of Edi Rama.” According to the statement, “any dirty game to secretly and unilaterally change the Constitution seriously threatens the political and social stability of the country.”
The opposition clarifies that “it fully stands for the return to legal changes, without any change of the June 5 Agreement, as the minimum basis for creating a normalized environment for the elections in Albania.”
Furthermore, the general secretary of the Democratic Party, Gazment Bardhi says that with the unilateral constitutional changes, Edi Rama wants to change the agreement and force the parties to compete as he pleases, with a joint list and not as he himself gave his consent in the June 5 agreement.
President Ilir Meta responded in the same line of thought as the parliamentary opposition, stating that the majority’s initiative unilaterally breaks the agreement. He stressed that the current parliament has no legitimacy to make constitutional changes, while adding that the initiative itself was undertaken in violation of the Constitution, during a period of natural disaster, a time when acts are not allowed to change the basic law of the state.
Moreover Meta said that the proposals contradict the constitution, as Article 96 recognizes the pre-election coalitions. This way, President Meta will not recognize the amendments, if approved by the parliament.
“As a guarantor of the Constitution and the unity of the people, I call on everyone to be accountable and reflective, and at the same time I will exercise all my constitutional responsibilities to curb, paralyze and at the same time devalue such an unprecedented action in three decades of pluralism. Such a unilateral act will not be recognized by the Institution of the President of the Republic”, declared Meta.
International community pressure
Additionally, the international community has continuously called Prime Minister Edi Rama not to amend the June 5th agreement. Therefore, this may mark his first serious clash with the internationals since he took over the government in 2013.
Both EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi and the OSCE have been clear about not changing the rules of the game, as one of the 15 EU conditions states that amendments on the electoral reform need to be consensual.
“Other reforms related to the electoral system, outside the OSCE / ODIHR recommendations, should be approved no less than a year before the elections and require appropriate consultation, as recommended by the OSCE,” he wrote in a Twitter post last week.
Furthermore, Ambassador Yuri Kim has stressed that the June 5th agreement between the government and the opposition is closed and therefore each party is expected to follow through with it.
The Bundestag warning
The deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, Johann Wadephul, stated that parliament should approve the Electoral Reform according to the agreement agreed on 5 June
In response to the breaking of the agreement, deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, Johann Wadephul claimed that if parliament approves the changes, it would be a serious violation of the June 5 agreement and would undermine the whole reform, stressing that the German parliament will not approve the first intergovernmental conference.
“Now we are hearing about decisions in Parliament, to change the June 5 agreements and the constitution, banning the formation of electoral coalitions by the parties before the elections. Both of these changes, if approved by Parliament, would be a serious violation of the June 5 and January 14 agreements.”
He stated that “the German parliament will not approve the first intergovernmental conference and the opening of membership negotiations, until the June 5 agreement is approved by Parliament without any amendments and without constitutional changes that undermine this agreement.”
Wadephul added that the adoption of the changes would call into question Albania’s prospects in the European Union.
“This would put the Albanian parliament and the ruling majority, including the Prime Minister, against the decision of all the heads of state and government of the European Union, taken in March this year, and would particularly question Albania’s prospects in the European Union.”
