The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, the Socialist Movement for
Integration leader, Ilir Meta, and the Democratic Party leader, Lulzim
Basha, gathered at the Coalition Meeting of the Local Observers.
“Electoral Corruption” was the topic of this meeting, in which were
present the US Ambassador to Tirana, Donald Lu, and all political
leaders.
The US Ambassador said that political dialogue between parties is very important for the electoral reform. “More work is needed for reaching a proper reform”, Lu said.
He underlined the transparency of party finances, including the step taken by the Socialist Movement for Integration.
“The political parties need to be very serious with the obligation to make their finances transparent. We have seen one party that has declared its finances with transparency. We encourage all political parties to publish the financial audit of their campaigns, together with the asset declarations of all candidates”, Lu underlined.
Lu asked the political leaders to not engage as candidates people with a corruption or criminal history, and said that the implementation of the decriminalization law is vital.
“Voters also need to be responsible and not accept money for their votes, and especially should not vote criminals”, Lu said.
The Ambassador concluded his speech by saying that Albanians and Americans as well love complaining about politicians. “We can complain as much as we want, but in a democratic system, we are the ones responsible for the politicians who are elected”.
The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, declared that it is time for Albania to interrupt the history of deformed and non-transparent elections.
“We must leave elections like those of 2009 and 2011 to the past. The path towards perfection never ends, but Albania has still much to do for corrections”, Rama declared.
Rama said that the problems verified in the past elections are smaller now, but still present.
“Transparency in 2009 and 2011 was blocked with brutality. The situation is changing. The elections of 2013 and 2015 have been accepted by all electors”, Rama said.
He underlined that the SP-SMI alliance is interested to address the OSCE-ODIHR recommendations, and that consensus with the opposition is very important for this.
The opposition leader, Lulzim Basha, requested that the reform should be drafted by a technical government, since the opposition finds the current government unable to guarantee free and fair elections. The opposition leader reiterated that it is not a matter of law, but of political will.
Basha said that the future electoral lists should be cleared of candidates with a criminal past, and said that the current Parliament is the mostly incriminated in 25 years of democracy.
The opposition leader considered electoral corruption as the main source of crime and corruption in our country, and said that the electoral reform should be considered as a political action by all parties, with the OSCE-ODIHR recommendations being the minimum of works.
The Parliament leader, Ilir Meta, said he only did his duty when started working for the implementation of the OSCE-ODIHR recommendations.
“I hope we will have the time and the political will to conclude this reform before the elections of 2017”, Meta said.
The SMI leader underlined that this reform should be realized in time, and all political factors should have the time they need to get completely involved.
“We are doing this reform with our partners, the USA, the EU and the OSCEm who have historically helped us”, Meta said.
As for the past elections, Meta said that there has been progress after each one of them, but electoral corruption remains present.
“Decriminalization will help us with this serious problem. We must also create a transparent system”, Meta said.
He added that it is important for politicians to accept the loss and not find other justifications.
The EU representative in Tirana, Jan Rudolph, was on the same page with the Albanian politicians as regards the implementation of the OSCE-ODIHR recommendations.
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