Boycott Threat Mars Parliament Opening

Tirana | 31 August 2009 | Besar Likmeta

Albania’s President Bamir Topi decreed on Monday that the new parliament will convene on September 7, despite ongoing ructions concerning the contested June 28 parliamentary elections.

After the new parliament takes its seats, the president is expected to mandate the Democratic Party, PD, of Prime Minister Sali Berisha to form a new governing coalition with allied right-wing parties and the left-wing Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI.

The DP reached a post-electoral alliance with the LSI and, once mandated to form the new government, is expected to start official negotiations to frame the arrangement.

Unofficial negotiations were held in August between Berisha and LSI head Ilir Meta in the southern resort village of Dhermi, on the Ionian Sea coast, and some newspaper are already dubbing the incoming ministerial group the Dhermi cabinet.

As Meta and Berisha work out how to divide the spoils of ministries and government agencies, opposition Socialist leader Edi Rama, has threatened to boycott parliament, arguing that the June 28 electoral process was marred by fraud.

Rama move a step closure during the weekend extraordinary congress of the Socialist Party in securing his leadership, after main rivals dropped from the race, after his position that the elections were stolen and not lost was approved.

“The position of the congress toward the elections was clear cut,” said Rama in a press conference on Sunday. “The same is toward parliament and the new government, which means that we cannot have a normal relationship with parliament,” he said, adding that his party would seek early elections, because it does not consider the new government legitimate. Source: Balkaninsight

Short URL: http://www.albanianeconomy.com/news/?p=2020

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