TIRANA, Feb.29 – The Democratic Party and its allies held a round table this week aimed at coordinating the future political action of the opposition.
The opposition parties have listed the decriminalization process and the guaranteeing of free and fair elections as the top two priorities of their political agenda.
“We unified our stance on the decriminalization of politics. The implementation of the decriminalization law is an urgent requirement for the political stability of the country, at a time when persons with appalling criminal records donned with an MP mandate within the majority constitute a constant threat to the life of citizens,” Democratic Party chairman Lulzim Basha said after the meeting of the opposition parties.
Basha also claimed that the latest physical attacks against opposition representatives are inspired by Prime Minister Edi Rama “who is instigating violence against the opposition through people with criminal records with the help of whom he came to power.”
The Democratic Party leader was referring to two alleged incidents involving its local representatives for which the opposition claims were carried out by people linked with the current government. “The Alliance of Crime today is facing the Alliance of the Opposition which keeps getting larger and which has decriminalization as its number one priority, followed by another priority, that of free and fair elections,” Basha added.
The opposition parties also appealed for free elections, in which voters are not intimidated, voter’s will is not deformed and vote buying is banned.
The opposition says that it has concrete proposals which will become part of the political dialogue with the ruling majority.
After the meeting, the chairman of the Republican Party Fatmir Mediu said that the opposition table will be held periodically, while adding that the opposition’s current relation with parliament should not be considered as a boycott.
“It is not a boycott of parliament, but a temporary stance on issues that are important for the functioning of parliament itself. We cannot accept that things function in accordance with the unlawful interests of the current majority,” said Mediu.
Soon after the meeting of the opposition parties, Democratic Party chairman Lulzim Basha had a meeting with the U.S. Ambassador in Tirana Donald Lu, discussing the implementation of the decriminalization law and the latest political developments in the country.
This week the opposition MPs continued the boycott of parliamentary committees for a second week in a row.
Last week, the parliamentary session was characterized by tensions over proposed amendments on the decriminalization law with opposition MPs conditioning the relations with parliament with the implementation of the decriminalization law.
