Opposition boycotts parliament session

TIRANA, April 16 – Main opposition Socialist lawmakers boycotted the parliament’s hall Thursday threatening no return if the government did not lift the “vote tax” which it referred to the payment of the new ID cards.
The opposition also threatened of starting street protests if there was no change in the government’s policy on that item.
The socialists abandoned the hall Thursday, a move which their group leader Valentina Leskaj considered as along the opposition efforts to support their demand that the new identity cards be given free of charge, especially to that big group of people who also have no passport, thus not being able to vote unless they get it.
“We cannot allow Sali Berisha to play tricks with the Albanians’ vote, with their constitutional right. The government has taken three decisions and none has resolved the issue but only acknowledging the problem. As long as no Albanian can pay such a shameful tax of poverty we will peacefully resist on the right of the vote,” said Leskaj.
“We want to lift the vote tax, the barriers to exercise the right of voting.”
The government has said that about one third of the 730,000 people of that group without passports have already applied or have got the new ID.
The whole month of April is let free only for that group of applicants, not letting others block the application offices. The application offices also remain open over weekend and their working hours are until 6 p.m. local time.
The opposition says that group is just less than one million and they all should get the new IDs free of charge. They are mainly from the poor strata of the society.
Interior Minister Bujar Nishani insisted the process was continuing normally and considered the opposition move as “speculations and a political play.”
“Claims of the opposition in creating an invented danger are totally a political speculation,” he said in the parliament.
The minister said that some 512,000 Albanians had already applied and until the end of May they aimed at having 1.5 million Albanians with new IDs.
That is considerably low compared to the government forecast of issuing 15-20,000 new IDs a day, thus completing the whole population.
Days earlier the opposition Socialists had said that unless the government would urgently make a radical move within this month to resolve the equipment of all Albanians with the new identity cards, then the whole process would fail and that would also put in danger the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha asked pensioners to go and apply or they would not be able to get their pension. The government offered a 1,000 lek assistance at a time when the new IDs cost 1,200 leks.
Students were also told to apply or they would not be allowed to enter the exams. They would also pay only 200 leks for the new IDs.
Some other groups like the disabled and those having social assistance will get it for free.
The opposition insists that the fall of the price does not resolve the completion of the process.