Ruçi: Berisha should not play with fire

31/03/2011 22:00

Socialist Party Parliament Group Leader, Gramoz Ruçi, declared that Democratic Party’s invitation to achieve an agreement on the elections was to be expected, because it was recommended by the EU envoy, who has visited Albania three times recently.

On Top-Channel’s “Top Story”, Ruçi announced that until now SP has refused the agreement, because their requests have not been taken in consideration.

This is the reason that Socialist’s higher representative in the Albanian Parliament is skeptic on the May 8th local elections standards.

“Will these elections achieve standards? I am skeptic, because of the lack of political good will. Those standards are not unachievable, but political good will is needed. One single Parliamentary session is sufficient. I think that this doesn’t make any difference to the Election Code, but the government has articulated that there is an obstacle in the Election Codes that prevents election’s transparency. The actual Election Code can resolve this problem, but Election Central Commission does not solve it”, Ruçi declared.

Ruçi also said that Election Central Commission should implement one paragraph of the Election Code, which states that “if two ECC commissioners decide to open the ballot boxes, the ballot boxes should be opened”.

Ruçi reminded the three conditions set by Socialist Party on this agreement, the accomplishment of which, according to him, misses the good will of the Democratic Party.

“The first problem is election transparency, for the accomplishment of which there is no political good will. When the election process is over, everyone should be able to see what has happened with their elector’s vote. Secondly, we do not have transparency for the voters’ list. We demand access to see and monitor by whom, how and when are these lists prepared. The third problem is the one regarding the identity cards. Many electors have voted with fake election cards, on behalf of Albanian emigrants who haven’t returned to Albania for many years, and have been living in USA, Italy, Germany etc…”, Ruçi explained.

The Socialist Parliamentary Group Leader said that the argument that the biggest cities’ administrations are currently governed by the Socialists is not valid, because, according to him, the lists are prepared inside the Interior Ministry.

On the other hand, Ruçi also declared that voters’ list manipulation is being carried out by involved state administration employees, who have leased their houses to three or four families.

To demonstrate his concerns with facts, Ruçi showed some documents that, according to him, demonstrate the manipulations carried out on 2009 July 28th central elections.

According to the document, one voting center in Shkodra shows that 85% of the enlisted population has participated in the voting process, when in Albania no voting center has population participation greater than 55%. Another document shows that in Paskuqan, according to official voting center records, there are 20 votes more than the total number of the enlisted voters in that voting center.

Ruçi has not spared critics against the Election Central Commission and its chairman, who, according to him, has infringed the Election Code by approving decisions that require the signature of the vice-chairman.

“Election Central Commission has taken decisions with only one signature, while the law states that two signatures are needed, both chairman’s and vice-chairman’s signatures. Because the Election Code has a bipartisan administration, from the highest level that is the Election Central Commission and to the lowest ones, which are the Election Commissions of Local Administrations” Ruçi added.

Accusing the government of returning into an “electoral mafia”, Ruçi emphasized that Socialist Party withdrawal from the elections is not an option.

After having warned to publish new facts on manipulations and submitting those facts to the General Prosecutor Office, Ruçi addressed a message to Prime Minister Berisha.

“I want to say to Prime Minister and his envoy in the Election Central Commission to not play with fire, and that this is the last chance. Since he is a highlander, I will address him with a highlander’s wise word: “Do not get yourself humiliated in old age, because there will be no time left for corrections”, Ruçi added.

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