“Waste import”, referendum after elections

The referendum request signed by 65.000 citizens, 15.000 more than the law requires, was submitted at the CEC by the Alliance Against Waste Import (AAWI). But the right winged CEC members showed that they have better legal experts than the opposition.

Same as with the local elections 2011, when they interpreted the law in its extremities and passed the victory for the Tirana Municipality from Edi Rama to Lulzim Basha, the majority at CEC made a sudden move even this time.

Initially they removed the attention from the referendum by focusing on the originality of the signatures, but the Police lab said that only a few of the signatures were made by one single person. However, the will of any citizen to sign it can be verified with the photocopy of the identity card.

But the CEC Chairman, Arben Ristani, says that the signature made by one single hand, despite the fact that there is a photocopy of the ID, is illegal as the family voting, when the husband votes for the wife, father or mother.

The matter became more serious when the idea was thrown to present a request to the Constitutional Court, as the law requires. In this moment, the Deputy Chairman of the CEC, Deshira Subashi, asked for a pause. After the pause, CEC debated for two hours.

The Electoral Code, although it has been amended in 2008, 2007, and 2005, the referendum section is still as in 2003, and the current CEC members have never had to deal with it.

This code says that the referendum request that has not went through all procedures within March 15th of any year, despite the time when it has been presented, will be postponed for the next year. This meeting should have been made before March 15th of this year. CEC voted that the request will go to the Constitutional Court on January 2nd and 3rd of 2013.

The Constitutional Court will have to decide within 60 days, until 3 March 2013. If the Constitutional Court gives no decision, the request is considered approved. The President has 45 days to declare the referendum date.

The maximal scenario says that this deadline goes until 17 April 2013, but the same Code of 2003 states that the referendum cannot be held six months before the end of the Parliamentary Mandate, and even three months after the first meeting of the new Parliament. The mandate of the current Parliament ends on June 2013, when the new Parliamentary elections will be held.

The new Parliament will gather on August or September, which means that the referendum cannot be held before November 2013. The AAWI understood all of this only when the meeting was over.

“We faced a farce of this institution that is known for its illegal decision and against the people’s interest. This is ridiculous, they are playing with the people”, environmentalist Faruni declared.

What’s the majority’s interest to postpone the referendum? Very simple: the majority cannot risk having political consequences by the results of the referendum before the next Parliamentary elections.

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