Parliament to decide for number of seats
28/01/2013 00:00
Linda Rama: Between Family, Work and Albania’s Future 18/08 14:30
The Central Election Commission has definitively decided that the number
of Parliamentary seats that will represent the citizens of each
Albanian district will be decided in Parliament.
“I want a public explanation why you didn’t take our request in consideration for today’s schedule? These are law violations made on broad daylight”, declared Denar Biba.
“We have exhausted it as a procedure. The procedure according to the Electoral Code has gone to the parliament. The Central Election Commission doesn’t have the competence to return the parliamentary seat issue for discussion. If you had problems regarding the CEC decision, the Electoral College was there, and you should have gone there”, declared Lefterie Lleshi, the Chairwoman.
The SP representative, Genc Gjocaj, brought to attention the consequences that will be felt in the electoral process.
“We have a very big question here. We have the elections of 2013 in play, and the Parliament taking the competences of CEC is illegal, even if it returns the variant of 2009 or if it takes the variant offered by CEC. The elections would be zeroed and we know this. Why putting the elections in question?”, Gjocaj declared.
“The members proposed by the Socialist Party are the real reason why it wasn’t voted in the CEC. If the elections will not go on the right decision, it will be your responsibility”, Lleshi declared.
After many debates, the meeting closed without having the request reviewed. The opposition representatives accused the CEC chairwoman of violating the laws that allow CEC to distribute the Parliamentary seats until March 7th, bringing in memory the precedent of 2009, when this process was made on the last day of the legal deadline.
“Today we are facing a decision taken by the Parliament that is entering anti-constitutional waters. It was a competency of the Central Election Commission to fix the Parliament’s image by taking a decision today. As CEC members, we cannot do more than this”, Biba declared.
The debate is expected to pass in Parliament, where the Parliamentary Commission of Laws has approved the idea to leave in effect the mandates of 2009, which has been opposed by the opposition as a project that does not guarantee vote equality.
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