Politics make life difficult for judiciary

TIRANA, June 22 – While the governing Democratic party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and main opposition Socialist Party of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama continue their long squabbling over the June 28, 2009 parliamentary elections, Albania’s judiciary is being affected like few other sectors.
The judiciary has long been Albania’s Achilles heel in its road of integration to the European Union since the fall of communism about two decades ago. But now the political dispute is leaving key positions empty and is adding to the strain on an already problematic and overloaded justice system.
President Bamir Topi, also head of the High Council of Justice, has nominated three candidates for the vacant posts at the Supreme Court. Though the three-week time period for the parliamentary legal commission is over, they are still on the agenda and the parliament sessions end next month.
Topi has also to fill four posts at the Constitutional Court, which will, very likely, remain for the parliament in September when it resumes the sessions.
On Monday Berisha also played hard, calling on the opposition to come and give their vote for the administrative court system in order to relieve bureaucracy for businesses.
Berisha called on the Socialists to approve a bill on establishing an administrative court that will aid the business environment. The bill provides protection for business from abuse by public administration, and speeds up rulings to within two months. It also creates a two-tier administrative judicial system comprising the court of first administrative instance and court of administrative appeal.
The draft law needs 84 votes to be approved, and as a result can pass only with Socialist votes.
The Socialists and their ally have 65 seats in the country’s140-seat parliament, while the Democrats and their coalition members have 75 seats.
Though taking part in the parliament’s sessions, the opposition has decided they will vote for important laws only after the vote transparency is clear, something which does not seem to come soon.