Socialists insist on the boycott

TIRANA, Sep 15 – In a reaction to the evaluation report of the OSCE/ODIHR observers the leader of the main opposition Socialist Party, Edi Rama, insisted that the boycott of the parliament served not the present but the future of the country, the holding of the next election in a transparent and fully democratic way.
A day earlier the report was considered differently by Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the re-elected governing Democratic Party, saying that the report considered the June 28 poll the best of the post-communist Albania.
Rama came out at a news conference Tuesday to say that the report had confirmed what they were saying, that the election process had lacked the transparency.
He repeated his call and request for the creation of an investigation commission to check the suspicious ballot boxes and the other material from the poll.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s Democrats won 68 seats and they were joined by two smaller allies, the Republican Party and the Justice for Integration Party with one each.
The Socialist Movement for Integration of Ilir Meta, who won four seats, has also agreed to join them in a coalition to form the new government.
The opposition Socialists and their ally, the Human Rights Union Party, won 66 seats in the 140-seat parliament.
Rama said they found a confirming evaluation in their stand and the “report was an alarm bell for the elections in Albania.”
Rama said that a NATO member country and one that is looking to become a member of the European Union should have the best standards for elections equal to those of the EU member countries.