Godo: Current system not only penalizes the small parties but thousands of Albanian voters who have been left unrepresented in parliament
TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, Aug. 12 – The Republican Party has asked for substantial changes to the Albania’s electoral code through its historical leader, Sabri Godo.
Speaking in an interview with Alsat television channel, Godo said the existing formula was penalizing small parties to a large extent.
“Logically, it seems more appropriate that these political forces should be present in parliament,” says Godo.
He added the current system not only penalizes the small parties but thousands of Albanian voters who have been left unrepresented in parliament because they voted for parties that have no representation there.
The Republicans managed to get a single MP in the past elections in which they were in a coalition with the ruling Democratic Party.
Albania’s small parties have never liked the current electoral law, which they say is designed to keep them out of parliament.
Now small political parties from the entire political system have joined forces to pressure and lobby the two major parties the Democrats and Socialists to change the electoral code.
The smaller parties are already coordinating plans on how to approach this common goal when dealing with the two large parties, the ruling Democrats and the Socialist Party, the largest opposition party.
The current code is essentially a regional proportional system, and only encourages SP-DP domination, damaging all other parties, which can’t even meet the parliament’s threshold. This system, they say, puts at risk the political pluralism in the country.
