Albania Parties Struggle to Resolve Crisis

A new proposition set forth by Prime Minister Sali Berisha over the ongoing dispute over the parliamentary elections has been flatly rejected by the opposition. The Socialist Party rejected on Tuesday a proposal from Berisha that a group of 100 prosecutors be formed to carry out the investigation of the June 28 parliamentary elections, which have been harshly contested by the Socialist opposition as marred by fraud.

Although Berisha’s proposal was never spelled out in detail, Socialist MP Ditmir Bushati, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, rejected the proposal, asking the government to allow a parliamentary investigative commission to carry a ballot recount as originally proposed by the opposition.

“We don’t need 100 prosecutors but only a majority that respects the constitution and allows for transparency,” Bushati told reporters.

Late on Friday an investigative commission was approved by parliament with only with 71 votes in favor from the Democratic Party led majority, however it does not have the power to reopen the ballot boxes and has been boycotted by Socialist MPs.

Although the commission had been in the works for weeks, the parties failed to agree on whether it will be granted permission to recount the election ballots and used a marathon hearing on Thursday and Friday to exchange jibes with each other.

Reacting to the creation of the new commission, the OSCE head in Tirana, Robert Bosch, warned on Monday that such partisan commissions would not help find a solution to the crisis.

“The commission should have been voted by both sides, if it is partisan it holds little or no value,” Bosch told local media.

The Socialist led opposition seeks the recount, arguing that complete transparency of the electoral process is necessary in order to avert fraud in the future – a constant problem over the last two decades as Albania emerged from the Stalinist regime of former dictator Enver Hoxha.

Meanwhile, the majority refuses the recount, contending that the courts have already denied the Socialists such a petition and that parliament would be overstepping its power and taking on the role of the judiciary if it moved to recount ballot boxes.

The Socialists, who have boycotted parliament for more than six months and returned only to discuss the investigative parliamentary commission, warned that they would restart their boycott and threatened to depose the government by protest.

Source: Balkan Insight

Short URL: http://www.albanianeconomy.com/news/?p=2242

Posted by Admin on Mar 24 2010. Filed under General News, Politics, Top News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry