Preparation for next year’s election starts

TIRANA, Nov. 12 – The first meeting of the International elections Working Group was held in Tirana organized by the OSCE Presence in Albania as a forum of representatives of the OSCE participating States and other international organizations to exchange information related to the elections, and to coordinate positions.
Albania is to hold parliamentary elections at the second half of June next year. Now it has a newly-created Central Election Commission.
But the political will remains the main topic of confrontation between the two rival political forces. The opposition Socialist party has started to accuse the government of trying to rearrange the division of the country for the next election so that there is a smaller number of a parliamentary seat in the areas where they predominate and more in the areas where the governing Democratic Party has more support.
OSCE Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth hailed the work done so far from the CEC which “seems determined to perform in a professional, non-partisan manner.”
“I cannot overemphasize the critical importance of maintaining a collaborative atmosphere within the CEC, with the active and constructive participation of all members,” he said.
There is a clear stance set from all the international institutions and the countries. Albania should perform free and fair elections next year or forget about the EU membership.
For sure that is a very strict measure and warning for a country that has applied for the EU membership for more than three years now and has received a negative answer, unlike all the other countries before.
But there is still the answer “so what?”
What do the country’s politicians, political parties lose if the country fails again? In practical terms one would say almost nothing.
In practical terms it is the Albanians who lose and they should hold themselves accountable for the vote they cast for one or the other political party.
The international community always says that there should be consensus found among the main parliamentary parties to successfully complete the electoral reform needs to be followed by the full and honest implementation of the amended electoral law by all the actors involved.
Next year’s elections will also use new technology and that makes a climate of cross-party trust and good will essential for them to be implemented successfully.
The OSE has also proposed a Code of Conduct for the political parties, aimed at avoiding the use of inappropriate language in the upcoming electoral campaign.
The media role remains another topic of interest, especially in the case of the election coverage.
For the moment the situation of the media, especially those of the print, remains very fragile and weak. They suffer from the lack of funding which consequently takes them to lower standards and poor quality applied in the daily work.
The Union of the Albanian Journalists said recently that 20 out of 25 daily newspapers and 17 out of 18 TV stations had great difficulties to cope with the monthly regular payments.
The parliamentary elections, very likely to be held June 23 following the president’s meeting with the political parties, will be very decisive for the country’s progress ahead into the EU integration but also for its democratic development.
Everyone hails the dialogue that started in the parliament last year. But it seems to have stopped or be in a stalled situation right now. But the most important thing is that decisions are not only voted but that they are also meant. This means that the decisions are also brought to life afterwards, like for example through good election process in 2013. These are the usual words one may listen from the international representatives in the country.
Albania has not suffered from the lack of the legal framework rather than its application.