Round One to elect the President of the Republic has failed. Neither the government, nor the Opposition managed to officially register candidates. Although the government continues to support the Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party, the main party in office, the candidature of Mr. Topi was not made official in the Assembly, leaving everything wide open to a possible compromise with the Opposition. Meanwhile, on the other side, the opposition still does not have an official candidate. The former Prime Minister and Chairman of the Socialist Party Fatos Nano, after efforts to secure the required support of 20 MPs, has turned back to more institutional methods to win the support of his party and of the other parties of the Opposition. It looks as though there is little chance for Nano to be the sole candidature of the Opposition. Ilir Meta, former socialist Prime Minister who currently leads the third biggest political force in the country, has made it very clear that under no circumstances would the SMI back Nano as a candidate of the Opposition.
At the moment, the majority of the Center Right in office appears more unified and while it talks about a consensus with the Opposition to elect the President, it continues to support the candidature of the Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party, Bamir Topi.
On the other hand, the Opposition, although it appears divided over the candidature of Fatos Nano, in the final account it appears united around the idea that the President be chosen from the Left. Edi Rama, Tirana’s charismatic Mayor who currently, is also the Chairman of the Socialist Party, the biggest in the Opposition, declared that in no circumstances would the Left vote for a candidate from the Right.
So this seems to be a most paradox situation: both political parties, while saying they want a consensus, exclude a priori any candidate who could come from either side. With these two, you could say extremist stands, the two main parties, DP and SP have open negotiations at a relatively high level too. It is possible that next week there will be a meeting between the leaders of these parties, which, in fact will be the first meeting between the leaders of the Ruling Majority and the Opposition, ever since Rama was elected Chairman of the Socialist Party. This is nothing new in Albanian politics. For a long while there was absolutely no political communication at all between the Chairman of the SP Fatos Nano and the leader of the DP Sali Berisha.
After more than one decade of the absence of communication or hand shakes, it was precisely the election of the President of the Republic in 2002 that compelled the two political leaders and opponents to sit down at a round table.
It is possible that there will be a repetition of this episode for exactly the same reasons: the requirement to elect the President of the country through a consensus. But time is fast running out: If by 24 July the Assembly has still not managed to elect a President of the Republic then the Constitution foresees that the Assembly is dissolved and the country moves on to early general elections.
Conducting early elections would be the most redundant scenario for at last four reasons: First, because early elections cannot produce a solution regarding the election of the President. With the current Albanian Constitution in mind which demands a three fifths Majority to elect the President, it is difficult to believe that either one of the bigger parties, alone or in the coalition, can secure 84 out of 140 seats in Parliament. Third, early general elections in the absence of a reformed Electoral Code, a completed infrastructure and Voter’s Lists means that all the country will be doing is repeating a contested electoral process. Last but not least, there is every indication that early political elections are not favorable for either of the big parties and in particular this would not be good for a number of major reforms and projects under implementation. The hardships in achieving a consensus appear to be making the parties think about changing the Constitution, which would allow the President to be elected by a Referendum, or by parliament but with a simple Majority. However, there is not sufficient time at their disposal. The only solution then remains a consensus, for which both sides are declaring they are ready to strive for, but meanwhile no one is actually taking a step forward.
