TIRANA – The Head of the OSCE Presence in Tirana, Ambassador Bernd Borchardt has congratulated the Albanian political parties for the resumption of dialogue on electoral reform and the agreement achieved this far in the Political Council, where dialogue has been established among Government and extra- parliamentary opposition.
The Political Council restarted its deliberations after majority accepted some requests of the opposition which has given up the demad on a transitional government 3 months before the general elections to be held next year. The process is expected to conclude on May 31.
“We are following with keen interest the compromise efforts of parties on those issues that the OSCE/ODIHR had indicated as problematic throughout the years: depoliticization of the electoral administration, gender balanced-electoral lists, establishment of a special structure to deal with elimination of undue pressure on administration and misuse of state resources, stronger mechanisms against electoral crime, controls on and transparency of campaign funding, media transparency during elections and an end to the practice of ready made tapes. At the same time electoral reform may not weaken the comprehensiveness of other central reform efforts,” said Ambassador Borchardt.
He encouraged all parties in the Political Council to continue along the path of finding constructive compromises and to finalize electoral reform for the benefit of Albania and its integration aspirations.
The political parties have committed to conclude this reform process on 31 May.
Ambassador Borchardt pledged OSCE’s support for the dialogue on the introduction of new voting technologies and a change of the electoral system./argumentum.al
