TIRANA, Jan.16 – Albanian opposition parties signed Monday a memorandum laying out five key conditions for their participation on the parliamentary elections due on June 18.
“Biometrical identification of votes, electronic voting and counting is a nonnegotiable condition for the opposition ,” the memorandum signed by 22 political parties including the chairman of Union for Human Rights Party Vangjel Dule, reads.
In addition, opposition parties led by the center right Democratic Party, DP seek the implementation of the decriminalization law approved in Parliament. They insist on the expulsion of candidates with criminal record from the electoral process and the introduction of penalties for vote rigging and manipulation.
The opposition also demands a ban in the use of public administration funds for electoral campaigns.
The ruling majority and opposition parties are divided on the issue of electronic voting. The Socialist Party-led coalition claims that the implementation of an electronic system in the parliamentary elections is impossible five months before the elections.
According to the governing coalition, technology is not “ultimate key to free and fair elections”
Earlier this week, Taulant Balla, Socialist Party MP and co-chairman of the Ad-Hoc committee on electoral reform called on OSCE ODIHR to provide an opinion on the required changes to electoral legislation and whether the use of technology is implementable at the current stage.
In the 2013 parliamentary elections, authorities attempted to introduce electronic voting in a pilot project in the electoral units of Tirana and Fier.
Albania spent millions of Euros for the application of technology in the two regions, but the pilot project failed.
