Parliament Approves the New Electoral Code

Tirana, Nov. 19, 2008 (AENews) – Albanian parliament approved with large majority the strongly criticized new electoral code on Tuesday night after debates that lasted for several hours. The new code is a result of a political compromise between two biggest parties in Albania, the ruling Democratic Party and the Socialist Party in the Opposition.
Different small political parties, think that the new code aim to outs them from the parliamentary life. Former Prime Minister Ilir Meta, who lead the Socialist Movement for Integration, ended on Tuesday its hunger strike that lasted for eight days and announced that will lead daily street protests against the government.

According to the new code, electoral commissions will be composed by representatives of two biggest parties. Smaller parties fears that their votes will not be counted in this case and see the move as the end of their hopes to be represented in the new parliament after the next general elections scheduled for the summer 2009.

The Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Robert Bosch, said on Wednesday that now that the Electoral Code has been approved by the Assembly with an overwhelming majority, the time has come to concentrate on the practical implementation of the Code in order to ensure that parliamentary elections next year take place in accordance with international commitments.

“The OSCE Presence in Albania is ready to assist Albania in the electoral process,” said Bosch.

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Posted by admin on Nov 19 2008. Filed under General News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry