International community urges faster election preparation

TIRANA, Feb. 13 – OSCE Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth urged faster work in the preparation of the infrastructure for the June 23 parliamentary election.
After meeting with the Central Election Commission Wednesday he said they wouldbe “in close co-operation seeing to prepare the elections in June this year.”
He continued to say that this visit “was first to highlight the importance to have rules of procedure, which the CEC has to give to itself in due time.”
“Trustful and good operations are facilitated by rules of procedure, so I extended an invitation combined with the offer of support for rules of procedure. They are important and they will facilitate even more the important work of the Central Election Commission,” he said.
This time Albania will hold a test with digital vote counting and voter identification ID checks in Fier and Tirana.
Wollfarth said that the OSCE Presence will also co-operate with the Central Election Commission in the upcoming further training of the electoral commissioners.
Wollfarth has called on the Central Election Commission to meet their responsibilities in the run up to the 23 June general elections. He called for professionalism and impartiality in the Commission’swork and stressed the need for new rules and procedures to be adopted as soon as possible to improve collegial functioning between Commission members and staff.
“The main task and challenge of the Central Election Commission is the implementation of the electoral law in a professional, impartial and timely manner. It is very important that the Commission continues work in this direction,” Wollfarth said.
He added that the presence was planning a covenant and training for mid-level commissioners and supporting voter outreach in the run up to the election, and had also financed the publication of the amended Electoral Code in both Albanian and English.
Holding of free and fair election inJune will be a key test for Albania also for its progress toward membership into the European Union. Brussels has made it clear in many occasions that elections are the main path of democracy in a country.