TIRANA – The accord on the electoral reform sealed on June 5 this year between majority and united opposition through the mediation of US, EU and UK turns back its protagonists at the table on Monday.
At the invitation of the opposition Democratic Party (DP) the Prime Minister, Edi Rama responded with the readiness to sit at this table himself and invited DP Lulzim Basha to do the same, even President Ilir Meta to discuss the constitutional changes.
But, as it is reported by DP Headquarters, Basha will send to this Council the General Secretary of the party, Gazmend Bardhi, along with Oerd Bylykbashi, co-chairman of the Political Council because the DP head will travel to Kosovo. Following this decision of the opposition, it remains to be seen at what level the ruling Socialist Party (SP) will be represented after these developments as its sources said that Rama is expected not to attend the meeting and one of the possibilities is for Damian Gjiknuri, co-chairman of the Political Council, to join the Socialist number two, Taulant Balla.
However, the possibility is not ruled out that the format of the meeting will remain unchanged as before June 5 so only Damian Gjiknuri, Oerd Bylykbashi, Petrit Vasili and Rudina Hajdari sit at the table again to discuss the only topic on the agenda, which is the opening of the lists and pre-electoral coalitions.
However sources said that the parliamentary opposition will attend the meeting. The chairman of the Parliamentary Group “Democracy and Justice”, Edmond Stojku said that the parliamentary opposition will send its two most vocal representatives to this Council: Myslim Murrizi and Rudina Hajdari.
“On behalf of the 28 signatories of the three parliamentary groups and the independent deputies, with whom we have requested the constitutional changes to the electoral system, the open lists and the implementation of the OSCE / ODIHR recommendations for depoliticization of commissions, that is for public election administration, we agreed that our representatives in the Political Council will be Myslim Murrizi and as chairwoman of the Integration Commission, Rudina Hajdari,” Stojku said.
It is to be seen the stance of international involved in this deal as some of them have insisted that it should not be changed. The EU and German politicians have expressed their support to the June 5 accord, while the US Ambassador, Yuri Kim has not said any word, but a local portal close to the opposition referred to a statement by her as saying in an interview with Klan TV some days ago that the accord should be adopted by Parliament as it was agreed. /argumentum.al
