Lajcak: Transparent elections

He himself admitted this, but was cautious to emphasize that with the new visit he wanted to remind to the Albanian political actors the expectancies of European Union.

“What we expect is: the support of a complete and independent investigation of January 21st events that should be performed fast and in a thorough way, in order to bring to justice all the crimes committed on that date. As for the Parliamentary Commission assigned to investigate this case, it would be much appreciated if they send the collected information to the General Prosecution. As for the democracy aspect, we would like to see the best performance for the preparation and organization of May 8th local elections”, Lajcak said.

Mr. Lajcak attended a long meeting with the Socialist leader, Edi Rama, whose party has raised the concern of election fraud. To the question if the socialists demanded post-election transparencies, or if he offered such guaranties to them, the EU envoy answered:

“This is your country, your election system. These are your political parties, responsible for the organization of these elections. It is obvious that on any kind of elections, politicians are only interested for the results. But for us, the international community, it is important that this election process is transparent, democratic, free and honest. This can be achieved only by the involvement of all political factors. At the same time, it is clear that in all countries it is the government’s responsibility to organize processes that fulfill the standards as free and honest elections. When you read the ODIHR recommendations on the latest central elections, there are some clear dispositions that have to do with the improvement of Election Central Commission, with the improvement of the government and political parties. Parts of these changes have to do with the amendment of the Election Code, but there are also other dispositions that do not necessary need Election Code amendments. These recommendations regard the way on which these elections will be performed. We want to see on the final report that these elections are better than the previous central elections. There is still time and many things can be done, according the problems that ODIHR noted after the last elections. One of the goals of my mission is to stimulate politicians to engage on the resolution of these problems. There is still time for this”, Lajcak said.

Mr. Lajcak commented on the fulfillment of the 12 recommendations of the European Commission, which would enable Albania to receive the status of the candidate country.

According to Lajcak, two of the most urgent necessities are the improvement of the parliamentary protocol for better practices, and the fast election of the ombudsman, a process that according to Mr. Lajcak is delayed.

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