TIRANA – The political parties in Albania ended without any results a high-level meeting where the request of the Prime Minister, Edi Rama to change the constitution was discussed on Monday without the presence of the public.
The extra-parliamentary opposition strongly opposed the PM’s demands, while the latter tried to justify his position by arguing that in parliament a group of opposition MPs had set additional conditions and demanded constitutional changes, which he supported.
In addition, Rama declared that the roundtable was a positive step and demanded the continuation of the talks, while the Democratic Party (DP) Secretary General, Gazmend Bardhi stated emphatically that his party hds no plans to discuss anything else.
“According to us, we have a very clear position and there is a political reality which imposes an approach that is dictated as the greatest force for us, but we also have the obligation to create a process and achieve a result where if all parties do not agree 100% with everyone, at least let it have its share,” Rama declared in his request to reopen the talks on the June 5 agreement.
But DP’s Bardhi was not on the same wavelength with Rama rejecting any further discussion on the accord which was mediated by the US, the EU and the UK.
“Today it was confirmed to us that we will have to reopen once again an issue that we have agreed on. Our appeal was that we could not throw away a 6-month work of the Political Council. We cannot say that we have changed our mind after 6 months,” said Bardhi.
Albania must approve changes to the country’s electoral code no later than July 30 this year, while the diplomacy of Albania’s western allies has been engaged for months to mediate an agreement.
The agreement on electoral change struck by the political parties is considered important because it is a condition for the opening of the EU accession talks of Albania with the Union and on the other hand because it is seen as a way to get the main opposition parties back on track of policy-making within institutions.
After more than six months of discussions, the country’s main parties reached an agreement under constant and open international pressure to make some changes to the administration of the elections on June 5. But the agreement has not yet been approved in parliament where the Socialist majority seems to claim that there is no political will from the “parliamentary opposition” to vote for it.
In the meantime the opposition MP, Rudina Hajdari called on the DP-led united opposition, and especially to its head Lulzim Basha to support the constitutional changes regarding the open lists. She said that Basha should not be afraid of any mischief because she is not like Edi Rama. “The 5 June accord was the starting point rather than the end of the road,” she said.
Hajdari, a deputy who did not obey the rule of the DP to abandon parliament, said that even the extra-parliamentary opposition has admitted that the agreement was not complete. /argumentum.al
