Socialists return to the Electoral College

TIRANA, June 29 – The Central Electoral College decided against further judging on the opposition Socialists’ request to declare the May 8 local polls in capital Tirana invalid. The Opposition had complained about the existence of 870 ballots more than voters in the capital and on other irregularities in some 280 out of 485 voting centers in Tirana. They directly accused the governing Democrats of manipulating the ballot boxes and bringing people temporarily to the capital just to vote that day. All accusations have been denied by the governing Democrats. The CEC said they could not decide on their own and referred the opposition to the Electoral College. They also said the opposition had delayed its appeal. This means that the Socialists will again go to the Electoral College to wait for its decision. Such a political fight shows that Albania remains deeply divided. After parliamentary elections in 2009, the Socialists were outmaneuvered by the Democratic Party that formed a coalition to lead the government. Since then Socialist lawmakers have made many efforts, starting with a boycott of the parliament and moving to street protests and also a hunger strike. They have also been boycotting the parliament again since the May 8 vote. European countries are tired of Albania’s polarized politics, especially during the two years since Albania’s disputed parliamentary elections. Every Albanian election since the fall of communism in the early 1990s has been marred by accusations of fraud. Albania has said it would like to achieve EU candidate status by the end of this year; but as the stalemate continues, many key decisions that demand a three-fifths parliamentary majority are blocked due to the absent opposition lawmakers. Attempts by Europe as well as the United States to mediate the crisis have failed to yield any results. The international community had hoped that the May 8 local elections would be a chance for Albania to show some political maturity. That failed with the counting process in Tirana. So what’s next?