OSCE/ODIHR publishes final report
15/08/2011 20:10
Lawyer gives details about the arrest of four lecturers in Shkodra university: They took bribes from students for exams 26/04 21:08
OSCE-ODIHR published the final report for the May 8th local elections.
According to this report, the elections were held in a tense environment
of political crisis, consequence of a anti-government demonstration on
January 21st.
Three months after the local elections were held in Albania, the final report that OSCE-ODIHR published this afternoon says that the elections were held in a political environment that was brought to a crisis point after violent clashes between anti-government demonstrators and police on 21 January 2011 resulted in four deaths.
While the elections were competitive and transparent, they were highly polarized, with mistrust between political parties in government and opposition.
As in previous elections, the two largest parties did not discharge their electoral duties in a responsible manner, negatively affecting the administration of the elections.
Partisanship and acrimonious disputes within the Central Election Commission (CEC) during the preparation for the elections weakened its ability to overcome gaps and ambiguities in the Electoral Code collegially and effectively.
Referring to the election of the Mayor of Tirana, the report says that CEC did not review the complaint on its merits but dismissed it on procedural grounds.
The report also underlines that the Electoral Code does not explicitly state that such ballots are not valid, nor does it provide for any procedure for the counting of miscast ballots and for their inclusion in the results. This gap led to considerable controversy and a protracted appeals process in the Tirana mayoral election.
“CEC and Zonal Election Commissions did not respect the Electoral Code. The Electoral Process took a lot of time to finish”, OSCE-ODIHR report continues.
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