Opposition hails NATO membership, urges responsibility for the polls

TIRANA, April 7 – Opposition party leaders hailed the country’s accession into NATO as an achievement for all Albanians.
At the same time opposition leaders said NATO membership requires the government and all its officials to show more responsibility and accountability, especially for the upcoming June 28 elections.
They insist the government should resolve any remaining glitches in the process of issuing new electronic identity cards, so all eligible voters can cast ballots in the June 28th parliamentary elections.
Opposition Socialists have started to call them the government’s tax payment. They are again asking the executive to give them for free to at least the Albanians who do not have a passport, so they are not sidelined from voting.
The government has made different steps to facilitate getting the new identity card for this category but it has also insisted there should be no free of charge distribution.
Since the start of the process only slightly more than 400,000 Albanians have applied for the new IDs. And only one third of them belong to the category of the roughly 930,000 people who do not have a passport.
The June 28 elections are a key element in the country’s democracy. The international community has made it clear that it is a key element in the country’s progress toward integration into the European Union.
The government says everything is on track for free and fair polls while the opposition says they are not ready and is not processing the preparations well.