No names in agreement for presidential candidates, talks continue

TIRANA, June 26 – The country’s two main political parties are continuing their negotiations to elect a new president, but there are still no candidates being agreed upon for Wednesday’s vote. Monday talks between the delegations of the governing Democratic Party (Gazmend Oketa and Astrit Patozi) and the main opposition Socialist Party (Arta Dade, Blendi Klosi) managed only to reach agreement on the profile for the new president.
They agreed that the new president should come from within the political arena.
However, the opposition Socialists insists that Democrats should forget about presenting Bamir Topi as their candidate as they consider him unacceptable.
Socialist leader Edi Rama said they should first agree on the criteria for the new president, before proceeding to name a candidate.
But the Socialists, on their side, stick to this idea not giving any name. They say that a consensual president means a good understanding on creating equilibrium among the powers. They would not accept that the Democrats’ leader (Sali Berisha) as a prime minister, his deputy (Jozefina Topalli) as parliament speaker and the other deputy (Bamir Topi) to become president.
“We are still looking for a name that would be an expression of the consensus,” said Rama.
Many questions remain about who will be the next Albanian president. What is going to result out of such a debate? No one knows what the results will be at the moment.
Will the voting be held Wednesday afternoon? Will there be candidates placed in nomination by Wednesday? What about the already declared names, besides Bamir Topi, like Fatos Nano, Alfred Moisiu, and Sabri Godo? What about the supposed cooperation among allies of the two political groupings? Does it exist?
“There would be no surprise if tomorrow we have another burnt round because meanwhile we are all predisposed to find a solution,” said Rama.
Last week the parliament held a session that was considered only as the launch of the election process for the president. It was not clear yet whether that was considered formally as the first round of voting.
Albania’s president is elected with at least three-fifths, or 84 votes of the 140-seat parliament, according to the constitution. Unless a new president is elected in five rounds of voting, the parliament is dissolved and early elections are to be held within 60 days.
No one wants that, including both parties, as the electoral code does not satisfy the rules required by the international community after the recent elections. The international community has repeated time and again that the two main political groupings should strive for a consensual president.
Another meeting among the two groupings may likely be Wednesday.