IDs take political fight to new heights

TIRANA, April 22 – Opposition Socialists seriously threatened to make undisclosed democratic moves unless the government decided to give the new identity cards free-of-charge to hundreds of thousands of Albanians who do not possess a passport.
The issuing of new identity cards seems to remain the continuous topic of debate ahead of the June 28 parliamentary elections.
The Socialists have not mentioned what they plan to do but have clearly hinted that they may likely either start street protests or even boycott the voting process.
In another move the Socialist Movement for Integration of former Prime Minister Ilir Meta suggested holding a round table with all political parliamentary parties to decide how to resolve the problem.
The government of the Democratic party and Prime Minister Sali Berisha turned down both suggestions saying that the process was going well and all non-passport voters would have their new IDs by mid-May, if they went to apply.
The Ministry of the Interior said that some 600,000 Albanians had applied and most of them had already received the IDs.
They said up to 17,000 had applied in the last few days and they were also issuing 19,000 cards a day.
The government said they had already offered a large degree of help to Albanians. Some groups of up to 700,000, including pensioners and certain groups, would receive the cards for free while others would pay only one-sixth of the 1,200 ALL cost. The government has also offered free transport to remote areas.
President Bamir Topi is also trying to play his impartial political role, by calling the people to apply for the new IDs and warning political parties to stay aside from the process and not spoil it.
Topi also turned down any voice suggesting a postponement of the June 28 polls, repeating that the voting process would be fundamental to the country’s further integration efforts into the European Union.
There have been different calls from the international community that the June polls would be decisive.
Last week Socialist lawmakers boycotted parliament’s threat to not return if the government did not lift the “vote tax” which refers to the payment of the new ID cards.
The opposition also threatened to begin street protests if there was no change in the government’s policy.
The opposition was not present at the session and also the commissions’ meetings this week.