OSCE calls on Albanian political parties to work intensively on electoral reforms

TIRANA, Dec. 18 – The Albanian office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe welcomed the extension of the mandate of the parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee on Electoral Reform on Tuesday and urged political representatives to work together to make progress in furthering electoral reform in the country.
“The OSCE Presence regrets that up to now no concrete results have been produced on electoral reform,” said Ambassador Robert Bosch, the Head of the OSCE Presence.
“We expect that, without losing any more time, all parties will engage to enact all the necessary legislative changes in line with Albania’s OSCE commitments and the recommendations in the OSCE/ODIHR’s Election Observation Final Reports, as well as with the 2004 and 2007 joint legal reviews prepared with the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, and other international standards for democratic elections.”
“We look forward to seeing the Albanian authorities introduce further improvements in the electoral legislation in an inclusive and transparent manner,” he said, adding that the OSCE stands ready to contribute to the electoral reform process by facilitating and offering expertise as requested.
Implementing electoral reform in accordance with international standards is a prerequisite for Albania’s integration into Euro-Atlantic structures.
On Tuesday it seemed that the proposal of the Socialist Movement for Integration to have a totally proportional electoral system caused immediate opposition from small political parties.
Albanian political parties are discussing whether there should be a constitutional amendment on changing the electoral system, or if that may be done without the involvement of the three-fifth of the lawmakers needed to approve such a change.
The country’s electoral system has been a main shortcoming during post-communist Albania, with the governing coalition usually exploiting it to gain posts by manipulating the process or results.
It has become clear that Albania should put an end to such a manipulation of the votes if it aims at becoming a member of NATO and the European Union.