Rama encourages stronger EU reaction to election results

TIRANA, July 20 – The leader of the main opposition Socialist party Edi Rama sent a letter to the EU’s top leaders, Catherine Ashton and Stefan Fuele, asking them to be more direct when speaking about the contested results of Albania’s last local elections.
In a reaction to their joint statement a day earlier, Rama told Ashton and Fuele that the May 8 local polls did deepen the political stalemate and crisis in the country due to the manipulation from the governing Democratic Party of Prime Minster Sali Berisha.
Rama said that the May 8 local election did not facilitate, but increased, the crisis which has existed since the 2009 parliamentary elections.
The opposition leader also said they were eagerly waiting the OSCE/ODIHR final report on the elections.
Rama had made the same appeal to the international community a week ago, saying they should be clear point the finger at the person responsible for the failure of the voting process, which according to Rama, are Berisha and his party.
Rama lost the race for Tirana’s mayoral position to Democratic former Interior Minister Lulzim Basha.
Rama was ahead by ten votes at the end of the initial counting, but the election authorities decided two days later to include miscast votes in the final tally, thus giving the victory to Basha with a margin of 93 votes.
The opposition accused the Democrats of manipulating the voting process and casting more votes illegally into the ballot boxes.
The OSCE/ODIHR final report is expected to come out in mid-August.