TIRANA, May 17 – Senior officials of the opposition’s resigned Democratic Party claimed on Thursday that they have told their branches in different cities to propose opposition members to the Zonal Electoral Administration Commissions (KZAZ), even though the DP did not register any candidates for local elections.
DP deputy chairman Edi Paloka and secretary-general Gazmend Bardhi told local media that they have instructed branches to propose members to the KZAZs because the electoral process is being heavily manipulated, starting with the illegal registration of candidates for heads of municipality.
The DP did not register candidates for the June 30 municipal elections, missing already the legal deadline.
Representatives of the Coalition of Local Observers, a voluntary union of citizens who oversee the electoral process, stated that besides the expiration of the legal deadline for candidate registration, the deadline for parliamentary parties to propose names to their commissioners in the KZAZ has also legally expired.
“After the opposition did not send any commissioners’ names, the Central Elections Committee declared the vacancies and so far 490 citizens’ requests have been submitted for the commissioners’ duties, of which 90 names have been approved. The KZAZ commissioner registration deadline has expired, but the legal deadline is still in force to send the names of the commissioners to the Local Elections Commission,” said Gerta Meta, head of the Association for Democratic Culture and a member of the Domestic Observers Coalition.
According to Meta, the real question for the CEC is whether it will still recognize the DP as a parliamentary party now that it has left parliament and has resigned its mandates.
“Article 29 point 5 of the Electoral Code states that if parliamentary parties do not submit candidacies to the KZAZ within the legal deadline, this right goes to other parliamentary parties sorted by number of seats in parliament. If they do not even nominate members, the CEC appoints the members of the KZAZ itself,” emphasized Meta.
But the Electoral Code specifies that the members appointed by the CEC remain in office until the nomination of the members proposed by the political parties, and this substitution can take place up to 30 days before the elections.
According to Meta, it remains for the CEC to clarify whether PD can be legally called a parliamentary party even after resigning the mandates of MPs and their replacement with MPs from the same parliamentary list.
Paloka told ABC TV that PD is taking this step with the commissioners, because the governing Socialist Party, with the help of a new opposition party, is manipulating the election process.
“June 30 elections will not take place. If Rama out of stubborness continues with this arrogance, we will certainly face them. For us there is no turning back. There are can be no elections without the opposition,” said DP deputy chairman Paloka.
“We are thinking of sending our commissioners to the KZAZs, as we have information that the KZAZs are made up of Rebirth members, in addition to some Rebirth members who have already been introduced as independent and are manipulating. We will be there to control everything, even the manipulations that have already been confirmed,” Paloka said.
CEC spokeswoman Drilona Hoxha said that the CEC has not yet received any request from the DP to occupy seats in the election commissions at various levels.
“If this happens, it remains for the CEC to assess whether to accept their request after reviewing the legal deadlines,” Hoxha said.
The SP has begun preparations for local elections and is the only big party presenting its municipal candidates, with the determination that the elections will be held, despite the opposition’s resignation.
On its side, the opposition is holding a series of protests, demanding early parliamentary elections organized by a caretaker government and Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation.
Meanwhile, local observers are expressing concern over the upcoming preparations of the electoral process. The Coalition for Reform, Integration and Consolidated Institutions, (KRIIK), an experienced election observation organization, delivered a statement that the candidate registration process raises questions about the integrity of the upcoming election process. The Coalition called on the CEC to oversee the candidate registration process because there is uncertainty and lack of information.
