Opposition asks for fresh polls

TIRANA, Aug 3 – Albania’s main opposition Socialist Party has called for fresh polls and has not politically recognized the results of the June 28 parliamentary poll.
Some 1.56 million Albanians cast their vote, or about 51 percent, which is two percent higher than four years ago but also 160,000 more votes in concrete figures.
The Democratic Party-headed coalition, the Alliance for Change, won 70 seats, slightly ahead of the Socialist coalition’s 66 deputies and the Socialist Movement for Integration-led coalition’s four deputies.
Following that, a meeting of the Socialists’ assembly brought out a resolution saying they did not recognize the results and also consider as illegitimate any institution coming out of those results. That means they will not recognize the new government created from Prime Minister Sali Berisha and his new coalition partner Ilir Meta of the SMI.
But the Socialists also said they would go to the new parliament, starting sessions in September, in order to investigate the manipulation or the abuse of the vote.
On the other side Berisha says that the opposition cannot provoke fresh elections.
In an interview to Radio Free Europe station Berisha first hailed the opposition’s decision not to boycott the parliament calling it an extraordinarily absurd decision if it would be taken.
Berisha said that the June 28 parliamentary election were the best ever in post-communist Albania.
But the premier said that the opposition’s request for a fresh election was na෥ though natural for an opposition.
Berisha said, however, that the constitution has set a motion for such a move, adding that makes an early election impossible. He called it a dream for the opposition, whom he again asked for cooperation in big reforms needed for the country’s integration into the European Union.
Berisha has mentioned that the new government, in coalition with the SMI, aims at taking the country closer to the EU.
Last April Tirana made the formal application for candidate status with the EU.
Berisha said the opposition could not prove any manipulation to the proper electoral institutions, something which will become much harder now.
The premier said that the success of his coalition was based on the fact that he gathered 17 political forces, following experience in the 2005 elections.
He acknowledged that the country has much work to do on achieving the proper standards.
The premier said he was determined to form a coalition government. That would have happened even if the SMI would not come out as a third political party.
The new government, he said, has as its main goal the country’s preparation for integration into the European Union, Employment and a series of other social issues in the country.
Negotiations on the new cabinet will start during the second half of August, he said. Meanwhile the media reported of his meeting with Meta last weekend in Dhermi.
Berisha as a party leader also did not deny other constitutional amendments to include an observer from smaller political parties at the electoral commissions, meaning the SMI.
Berisha also said that during his second term in the post he would go to neighboring Kosovo some time, officially and privately.
On the other side, Kastriot Islami of the opposition Socialists came out against his leader, Edi Rama saying that the latter cannot be re-nominated for the party’s top post at the party convention Aug 29. He also said that the call for fresh elections were used and exploited as an alibi for Rama to be re-nominated at the convention.
Islami is among the few opposition lawmakers and senior leaders in the party who have come out against Rama saying that his project failed in the last elections.