Democrats say consensual reform commission does not address all major issues
TIRANA, Jan. 22 – Prime Minister Edi Rama, also leader of the governing Socialist Party, agreed Wednesday on a request from the main opposition Democratic Party on the right of vetoing provisions in the territorial administration in parliament. It means any reform about how borders of municipalities are set would require unanimous decisions.
The parliament launched its new session this Monday and the territorial administration project was the main issue of debate. Albania is trying to lower the number of municipalities by merging them in order to make local governance cheaper and more effective.
Rama said the reform did not aim to change the political composition of voting districts, though it will affect them, which is why he was seeking full support from the opposition so the reform would be done through consensus in line with previous electoral reforms.
The Socialists said the ad-hoc parliamentary commission would have two equal leaders and have an equal number of members from both sides of the spectrum and would require consensus decisions.
However, Democrats’ leader Lulzim Basha rejected the offer, saying it was not enough to achieve consensus and there were major issues lingering.
The head of Democrats’ parliamentary group, Edi Paloka, said the ruling parties were trying to reshape district borders to gain a political advantage.
Basha said issues like the civil employee law and moves by Socialists to replace officials in some nominally non-political institutions meant the Democrats would refuse to cooperate.
The Democrats response mimics the Socialist’ behavior when they were in opposition.
Experts argue there is needed a parliamentary commission to work on the project, aiming not only to re-divide the territory for administrative purposes, abut also use it for a better management of the elections.
