Experts note that now is the time to see whether the ruling Socialist Party will take under consideration proposals from civil society, such as Përparim Kalo.
TIRANA, May 30, 2022 – Albania’s parliament has used up the third round of voting for selection of a new president with no names being proposed, exhausting the opposition’s opportunities to propose a candidate.
Moving to the next two rounds now means the ruling Socialist Party can vote in a candidate of their choice with a simple majority and without the votes of the opposition.
The Socialists have said they want an inclusive figure to serve as the next head of state and had called for proposals from outside politics. Experts note that now is the time to see whether the ruling Socialist Party will take under consideration proposals from civil society, such as Përparim Kalo, one of Albania’s top legal minds, who recently received the official endorsement of a slew of civil society organizations, which asked parliament to take a vote with him as a candidate.
The constitution sets a process of having five rounds of voting to select the head of state in parliament. With three gone without any names being submitted as a result of no consensus, opposition representatives said parliament lost the chance to give proper legitimacy to the institution of the head of state, blaming the ruling Socialists for refusing to compromise.
While the Socialists blamed the main opposition Democratic Party who they say refused to use the opportunity to propose candidates.
The opposition itself was divided in the process, with part of the MPs negotiating with the government while the rest refused.
The head of the Socialist parliament group, Taulant Balla, blamed the Democrats for not submitting a single name in the early rounds.
“We will continue to seek communication and dialogue with all MPs of parliamentary opposition groups, to ensure the greatest possible and consensual support for the election of the president,” Balla said.
The Socialists are now expected to convene to discuss a potential candidate. With Prime Minister Edi Rama on a visit to New York to attend a ceremony of Albania taking over the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council on June 1, the selection process is expected to be delayed as much as officially possible — for a week or more.
Earlier, Prime Minister Edi Rama had said SP would wait for the end of the third round before proposing names.
“If it will be the same result, we will gather and talk with the leadership of the Socialist Party, then with the parliamentary group, then in the assembly hall,” he said.
Under Albania’s much amended constitution, consensus is no longer required to elect the head of state. Until the third round, the president can only be elected by a qualified majority of 84 votes. While in the fourth or fifth round a simple majority of 71 MPs are needed, which means the Socialist Party can afford to wait until it can simply pick the candidate it wants to see as head of state.
As per Albania’s constitution, the president is largely an honorary figure meant to represent the unity of the people and ideally should not be an active political figure. But because the political parties in Albania have seen the presidential election as a zero sum game tied to their own power, most presidents selected in recent history have been political and pushed the boundaries of what is defined by the constitution, constitutional experts have noted.
In a small but growing important circle of the Socialist Party there is an increasing sense that they need to put forward a candidate that can realistically be perceived by the public as independent — someone with the right stature, authority and integrity.
One of the early names to come up that fit that bill was Perparim Kalo, a civil society proposal and an outgoing Constitutional Court judge. One of Albania’s best and most experienced lawyers and a leader in the legal community, Mr. Kalo is known for his close relations with various national and international institutions over the years and one of the biggest patrons of art and culture in Tirana.
