Opposition Socialists asking for fresh elections

TIRANA, Jan. 10 – Main opposition Socialist Party on Monday said they want fresh elections. That followed the decision from the Central Election Commission to archive the June 2009 electoral documentation and burn the ballots.
The opposition claims vote count manipulation. It had first asked for a partial recount, a move which it withdrew and alter asking only the investigation of the election documentation.
Socialist leader Edi Rama said that the two moves of the central election commission showed well to every Albanian their accusation that Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the Democrats had stolen the ballots 18 months ago.
Rama also said that the burning and the sending of the documentation into the archive are both legally invalid and those moves would escalate the opposition actions.
First the opposition boycotted the parliament and held street protests. After international mediation from the Council of Europe they returned to parliament but did not agree to create an investigative commission as the governing Democrats liked to. They continued the street protests and also held a hunger strike, which ended after international mediation. Again they did not agree to create an investigative parliamentary commission based on the Democrats” terms and in July last year they decided to boycott all voting processes at the parliament, which practically means no law asking for two-thirds or 84 votes can pass and usually these laws are needed along the reforms for the country’s integration into the European Union.
“I want to make it clear that we are speaking of elections and with that we understand all the efforts to take the country to early polls because only fresh elections and an understanding, based on obliging guarantees from the sides on holding these elections is the way out of the crisis,” said Rama.
Socialist leadership is holding meetings all around the country likely in preparation of street protests.