Talks continue, no tangible results yet

TIRANA, July 22 – parliamentary group leaders of the governing Democratic Party and the main opposition Socialist Party, Astrit Patozi and Gramoz Ruci respectively, held another round of talks Wednesday evening on the parliamentary investigative commission for last year’s general elections.
The Socialists claim vote count manipulation and want a partial recount, which has been turned down by the Democrats saying that violates the laws and the Constitution.
The recent talks came following intensive pressure from the European Parliament and the European Commission making it clear to the Albanian politicians that political dialogue on the country’s issues is a fundamental requirements along the country’s integration efforts into the bloc.
Previous negotiations and efforts made from the international community have failed so far and the Albanian post-communist politics has shown it finds it hard to accept a compromise with the opponent.
In their second meeting Wednesday evening at the parliament headquarters the two politicians stayed together for about one hour. But this time they did not come out to say anything at all to the media.
The two groupings have already agreed to create a parliamentary investigative commission that will be led from the Socialists, who will also have the majority of its members.
The parliament closes its session this week.
Though not making a total boycott, the opposition Socialists have been boycotting its voting procedure in the last month and have said they will reconsider such an idea in September