Opposition’s opponents want end of boycott

TIRANA, Sep 21 – The internal fight in the opposition Socialist Party is reaching new levels with opponents of the leader asking for the end of the parliament boycott.
Five lawmakers – Ben Blushi, Arben Malaj, Kastriot Islami, Andis Harasani and Marko Bello – said last weekend that the boycott is more damaging to the party itself than giving any desired effects for the party.
Ben Blushi and Arben Malaj lead the ‘fight’ against party leader Edi Rama who meanwhile continues his nationwide trip together with his rival for the post of the party leadership, Maqo Lakrori, presenting their ideas to the party members.
Blushi said that the boycott was seriously aggravating the image of the party negatively and considered it an outdated stand.
The country needs more than ever the opposition to be in parliament to cope with a government “that is not guaranteeing reforms and a fast integration process.”
Blushi also said following the meeting of the five lawmakers that they should read the messages of the international community calling for an end to the boycott.
Rama has said that the governing majority should pass a law on the transparency of the election of June 28 which they consider as ‘deformed’. Then a parliamentary investigative commission should check the votes cast in several areas, referring to the fact that the international observers also said that in one third of the counting centers the process was bad or very bad.
But the governing Democrats say that the report highly evaluated the June 28 polls as the best ever in post-communist Albania.
On the other side of this internal fight Rama and his supporters insist that the opposition will stick to its stand of the boycott until the governing Democrats agree to count the ‘deformed’ votes.
Socialists won 65 seats in the parliament; one was won by their ally, the Human Rights Union Party. Berisha’s Democrats and their allies won 70 seats and together with the Socialist Movement for Integration of Ilir Meta, who won four seats, they have easily passed the new Cabinet and its program.