ODIHR monitors ‘accepted’ from election commission

TIRANA, May 17 – The saga of the diplomatic and behind-the-scene fight of the Albanian government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha against the head of the ODIHR monitoring mission, British Ambassador Audrey Glover, did not last long.
The ODIHR, OSCE, European Union and other international institutions made it plainly clear to Tirana that players and teams are not up to selecting their referee.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) accredited last week the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), with its 39 monitors who will observe the June 28th general elections.
Hundreds more of international monitors will come for the June 28 election day.
It became known last week that the ruling coalition, or better say, the premier who had been a president in 1996, rejected the appointment of ODIHR mission head Audrey Glover who had also run the ODIHR 14 years ago when the commission had given a poor and harsh report of manipulation in the tiny post-communist country.
The European Commission reminded Albania that such a stand does not help its integration process.
Consequently the executive caved in to pressure from European countries and agreed to accept the monitoring team for June 28 elections whose British leader was considered objectionable.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha had asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to remove Audrey Glover, a British poll watcher, claiming she had shown a lack of realism in her organization’s report about Albania’s 1996 elections.
But he accepted the team after European Union countries made their position clear in support of Glover, whose monitors at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will evaluate the election.
The June 28 parliamentary elections are considered of top priority for the country’s integration process into the European Union.