Opposition says government failing with IDs

TIRANA, Feb 16 – The main opposition Socialist Party accused the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Democratic Party of failing to provide the new identity cards to the population, thus endangering the June 28th general elections.
Socialist lawmaker and senior leader Fatmir Xhafaj said that they were seriously concerned with the production of the new IDs.
They said that only seven cities had started to accept applications for the new IDs while the Interior Ministry said that many other main cities would immediately start the process in the days to come.
People started to apply for them on January 12 but till now only one person has received the new identity card.
Bowing to the opposition’s pressure the government prioritized giving the new IDs first to those not owning a passport so that they could also vote.
Meanwhile the government opposes such claims saying everything is going in line with the plan and the 730,000 no-passport voters have already been told they should apply until mid-April.
The other voters will start applying on April 1st.
But those who do not apply will be punished by not receiving certificates or other documentation that they may need or ask from the authorities.
Some three million voters are supposed to cast their ballots at the June 28th general polls.
The government says that the voting infrastructure is already in place and also said they cleared the voters’ list from duplications.
Voters’ lists have been a main shortcoming in post-communist Albania that has never seen a totally free and fair voting due to manipulation from political parties.