Parliament rushes to complete electoral reform

TIRANA, Nov. 22 – Parliamentarians of the majority and the opposition rushed Wednesday to pass the required amendments for the electoral reform at the parliamentary commission. The legal commission voted in favor of some constitutional amendments presented by the opposition on the timing of holding general and local elections. General elections are supposed to be held in spring while local ones in autumn every four years, that is one year more for the local authorities mandate. That is one of the 12 issues agreed from the two political groupings at their Aug. 20 compromise based on the recommendations of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Four members of the commission were, however, against amending the constitution saying that in case of early elections such a scheme would break down. Other parliamentarians from the opposition said experts should have been consulted for such topics.
In another commission, that of public information and education, parliamentarians discussed on increasing the number of the radio and television council but they could not reach an agreement.
The opposition presented Monday a list of some 40 amendments needed for the electoral reform ahead of the local elections. The commission created since earlier this year, whose work was postponed two or three times, failed to produce any result at all despite the fact it was also supported with a compromise agreement in late August The two main political parties _ governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and main opposition Socialist Party f Tirana Mayor Edi Rama _ have many disagreements mainly for the voters’ list and the timing of holding local elections. The ruling Democrats say they want the existing voters’ list which they say it is improved while the opposition Socialists want a different one. They also complain about more than one million birth certificates distributed from the Interior Ministry to be used this summer, which they say is a source of manipulation for the government. The date of voting is another contested issue. The Democrats say they want the Constitution be respected, which says that elections should be held sometime between Dec. 20 and Jan. 20. socialists say that harsh winter in many areas in the country would prohibit voters to go to the polls and the timings would be a good moment of manipulation from the government authorities.
That made that after the expired date of Nov. 15 for the commission the opposition went and presented these 40 requests. The first reaction was negative from the Democrats. But after calming down and listening to the Socialists (they also lowered the tone) that it was not supposed that all 40 amendments would pass, there came this urgent meeting of the parliamentary commissions rushing to pass many issues that will very likely be voted by the parliament next Monday. The amendments cover the increase of the number of radio and television council members from seven to 11, setting the timing of the local and general elections, voters’ list, increase of members of the Central Election Commission from seven to nine, competencies of the CEC vice chairman, change of local voting commissions to include all parliamentary parties, use of proper documents from voters and some other technical details.