Opposition rejects Berisha’s offer of dialogue

TIRANA, July 13 – Main opposition Socialist party leader Edi Rama said Wednesday that they would not speak with Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the Democratic party, instead accusing him of being an unreliable partner who has violated the constitution and laws continuously. Rama, who lost the May 8 local race for the Tirana mayor, also called on the international community to be clear in their reaction on the “theft” of the May 8 local elections. Rama claims victory, as a result of his preliminary win by a ten vote margin. However, following this initial result, the CEC decided to include ballots wrongly cast in the other boxes in the final tally, which then put Basha 93 votes ahead. Rama also denounced the Electoral College, saying that the “courts have resembled the government’s face and have become part of Sali’s anti-democratic mascarade.” The opposition leader said that the manipulation of the results in Tirana showed that Berisha not only steals the elections, but that he also turns a deaf ear to the “good-willing words of the international community.”
“We publicly ask the Albanians’ international friends and partners that, under the conditions of an open theft of the elections, they should not remain at the good-willing predication this time,” he said. “The Albanian people need to clearly listen to the truth spoken from the mouth of its valuable partners. They are not and cannot be part of the election theft, with the government that has abandoned the rails of the democratic Europe openly betraying and violating the values, principles, standards of the EU integration and the NATO membership.” Berisha has repeated this week the offer of dialogue for the electoral reform. “With his stolen regime … nowadays there is no possible dialogue,” Rama replied, adding that a dialogue would be possible only if the government acknowledged openly stealing the polls of May 8. Rama also said they would continue the democratic efforts in the anti-government fight. “We refuse to submit to the dictatorship of the fait d’accomplit and will not be part of any farce organized by Sali allegedly for dialogue, but in fact being another effort to continue to lie the Albanian people and the international community,” he said, adding that “to us Sali is an incorrigible violator of the Constitution, of the election and of the rule of law in Albania.” Rama also said that only after that confession from the government they could talk of dialogue and of being committed to a package of reforms and constitutional guarantees for the integration into the European Union.