Consensus for reform

“We achieved a series of additional guarantees. Not everything that we have asked has been materialized in this agreement. However, we are in a better situation and the code has visible improvements, compared to the current situation. I can mention some of the main elements. The first is that we were able to reform the Central Election Commission before its mandate was over, by creating more reliability for the implementation of the new measures. Secondly, there are some guarantees regarding the preparation of the voters’ list, which was one of the main problems with the election preparation, including our representatives at the Interior Ministry, at the National Civil Registrar, and a constant information on every amend that takes place in this register, a kind of full access on this list. Thirdly, there are other additional guarantees that are related with the ballot counting process, which means that there will be no complete result without counting every ballot box. There are visible improvements and it has been guaranteed – different from what has been misinterpreted by the precedents established by CEC – the undisputable right of two members when there is a complaint and when the request of one party for the evidence inside the materials’ boxes is supported by both members. This is a request that must cannot be delayed, that cannot be discussed by CEC, but that has the obligation to proceed automatically with the review of the evidence”, declared the Socialist Co-Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Damian Gjiknuri.

But why didn’t the Electoral Reform Commission take in consideration the propositions of 26 small parties from both sides, which requested a correction of the electoral system?

“We insisted that this issue must be included. We tasked the experts to give us a conclusion regarding the system. I can say that we didn’t agree with the Democratic Party on 100% of the things, which was also publicly admitted by Prime Minister Berisha. We insisted for the system issue, and I think that there is an open window about this. The Parliament must find other mechanisms, maybe through a special commission that includes the small parties that are not part of the Parliament that will discuss the system from the constitutional point of view, because some of the suggestions from some experts were that there could be discordance with the Constitution.  I believe that another commission, with a short electoral period, could address very soon the system issues for finding the acceptable balance with the participation of small parties”, Gjiknuri declared.

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