TIRANA – The Socialist Party (SP) has turned down the new formula on the Central Election Commission (CEC) proposed by the opposition which wanted it to be discussed by the Political Council on the Electoral Reform on Wednesday.
“The Socialist Party considers it a proposal not included in the agreement,” said SP’s co-chairman of Political Committee on the Electoral Reform, Damian Gjiknuri in a response to the opposition’s request. According to him, the CEC formula should be new in respect of the fact that Parliament is the sovereign for the election of CEC.
According to him, only if the opposition brings a new proposal based on these principles, this discussion can continue.
Regarding Wednesday’s meeting of the Political Council Gjiknuri asked the opposition to specify the other alternative proposals which can be solved rather than waste time with useless debates.
Last Tuesday, opposition’s co-chairman of the Committee Oerd Bylykbashi revealed that they had made a proposal on the formula for the selection and appointment of the three structures of CEC which is similar to that of the judicial system.
The three stages provided in opposition’s formula are the control of the formal criteria by an independent constitutional institution as the Ombudsman, the selection of the candidates by a selection commission composed in a balanced way with 3 members from the majority and 2 from the opposition, and lastly an en bloc voting of the list by Parliament.
In another related event, Speaker Gramoz Ruçi received a group of opposition lawmakers who presented him their demands for inclusion in the electoral reform of the national proportional system, open lists, removal of the electoral threshold, voting of emigrants, biometric identification of voters, banning of party funding in election campaigns from the state budget.
Ruci is quoted as saying that parliamentary opposition’s proposals would be discussed in the Special Commission for Electoral Reform. /argumentum.al
