TIRANA, Nov. 3 – With increasing reports that the two largest political parties — the governing Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama and the main opposition Democratic Party of Lulzim Basha – are again discussing joining forces to change the electoral code to gain more parliamentary seats at the expense of other parties, there have been concerns there could be another blow to the fairness of parliamentary representation by artificially inflating the power of the lead parties.
Though there have been no official statements on the matter from the two parties, a strong reaction from the smaller ones indicates that such changes are being mulled.
The primary target of such action would be the third party, the Socialist Movement for Integration of Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta.
SMI is worried about a possible deal between the two big parties based on a proposal for the adoption of an electoral system according to which the party that emerges as a winner of elections can take on a certain number of extra lawmakers in order to create a stable majority.
Speaking to the Sot newspaper, an SMI senior official, Ylli Manjani, said that such a system would take the country at least 14 years back in time and would bring back the infamous Dushku scenario, where repeat elections in a small village managed to decide on a significant number of lawmakers after the parties there relied on strategic voting to shift seats.
“We should listen to the OSCE/ODIHR’s recommendations. This electoral system is not recommended by the ODIHR. However there isn’t still a political proposal to change the electoral system, therefore we have no opinion on this issue. Technically I can tell you that this proposal brings us back to Dushku,” Manjani said.
The SMI has been the key to creating the government in the last eight years when it has affiliated itself in cooperation first with the Democrats in 2009 and then with the Socialists in 2013.
Following the local municipal elections, this year the OSCE has asked Albania to make amendments of its electoral code. The same request had been made two years ago as well following the general parliamentary elections.
In 2008, the Democrats and Socialists joined forces to change the electoral system and constitution overnight. The product deeply eroded representative democracy in Albania by making the two party leaders all-powerful and taking decisions away from voters’ hands, critics of the changes say.
