Elections, help from ODIHR

As the big political parties agreed, ODIHR was invited by the Parliament Speaker, Jozefina Topalli, to offer their expertise for the amends that the Albanians will make to the Electoral Code. Different to the other times, when the ODIHR experts have been directly involved in the Code amends, the official answer of ODIHR was that the experts will only advise the Commission and will give technical assistance by monitoring them, if these amends are in accordance with the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations for the last two electoral processes. These recommendations are 53 in total, and as the Parliament Speaker declares, the 53 recommendations of 2009 and 2011 are the electoral reform itself.

Topalli expresses the majority’s stance for staying within the ODIHR recommendations, which do not suggest electoral code amends. According to the Parliament Speaker, the implementation of these recommendations is a matter of standard, and not a matter of parties, and that it is the best way for fulfilling the highest democratic standards.

According to the ODIHR expert, Jessie Pilgrim, one of the best connoisseurs of the electoral processes in Albania and who has assisted even earlier with the electoral reform, and who is author of all ODIHR recommendations for Albania, except the recent ones, Albania has made visible progress as regards the legal framework and the election standards. The ODIHR experts have shown maximal readiness for giving their assistance, so that the reform concludes in the right time, by the end of March, for which the Parliament Speaker expressed her optimism, although the commission has not created the key amends for the Central Election Commission reforms, the electoral administration, the voting and the ballot counting processes.

The ODIHR experts have held a mutual meeting with all small parties inside and outside the parliament, in order to have their opinion about the amends that should be made to the electoral law. The most delicate matter is the electoral system, since the small parties that are supported by the Socialists demand a change of the electoral system, which has been categorically opposed by the Democratic Party, and the system change cannot be found in the schedule of the Parliamentary Commission for the electoral reform. This Friday, the ODIHR experts will meet the co-chairmen of the Commission, Ilir Rusmali and Damian Gjiknuri, and will participate in the meeting of the Parliamentary Commission for the Electoral Reform.

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