Rally in support of the lawmakers on hunger strike

TIRANA, Nov 17 – Thousands of protesters gather in front of the Albanian parliament in support of ten lawmakers from small political parties who are on their eighth day of a hunger strike to protest a draft electoral law.
Some 3-4,000 Albanians held national flags, flowers and posters like “No to dictatorship,“ “Vote is sacred“ and others shouting slogans like “It won’t be approved“ referring to the draft electoral code.
The parliament postponed the debate for Tuesday allegedly trying to find a reconciliation deal with the lawmakers occupying the sessions’ hall.
The health conditions of the deputies, who belong to the opposition Socialist Movement for Integration and also to a party in Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s governing coalition, have deteriorated, including an old one who also suffers from diabetes…
They claim the draft law is aimed at keeping small parties out of Parliament excluding their representatives at the electoral commissions.
In April the two main parties passed some constitutional amendments changing the voting system into a regional proportional one, which also asked for a new electoral code.
Ambassador Robert Bosch of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, that always has been monitoring elections in post-communist Albania, considered the draft electoral code “an achievement,“ but also needing “some fine tuning … to be discussed in the proper fora by the parties, but not under coercion by any one grouping.“
Albania holds general parliamentary elections next year.
The European Union has made it clear that the vote must be of a high standard if Albania wants to advance to join the 27-member bloc.
The parliamentarians started their hunger strike Nov 10 accusing that the proposed new regional system of proportional representation will greatly reduce their number of seats at next year’s general election.
there was a mixed reaction from ambassador of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Robert Bosch, on Monday. First he said he would “not rubber stamp” the election code. But two hours later his office said that “the draft Electoral Code, which was prepared by the Albanians themselves, was an achievement, but that it still needs some fine tuning”.
“For that reason, it needs to be discussed in the proper fora by the parties, but not under coercion by any one grouping,” the OSCE said, referring to the hunger strike.
The draft law does not formally require the OSCE’s approval, but its opinion is important because its observers will be the arbiters of whether the election is free and fair.
US Ambassador to Tirana John L. Withers also met with Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Socialist leader Edi Rama Monday evening but all of them declined to say anything if the meetings covered the hunger strike issue.
The next day Withers also met with parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli.
Post-communist Albania has yet to hold elections that meet international standards.