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In Albania, United Human Rights Party (UHRP) has decided to run in the June 21 elections on its own.

This political force that represents the Greek minority in Albania, is currently part of the governing majority.

But, with the entry in the left wing coalition of PM Edi Rama of PJIU, the party that defends the rights of Tchams, UHRP de facto finds itself outside of the coalition that won the general elections two years ago.

In Albania, the leader of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha expressed his concern  about what he considers as a threat imposed by the government on the standards and the lack of a calm pre election climate.

Basha suggests that a larger participation of observers would assist in monitoring the process and avoiding the consequences that may come from electoral fraud.

The leader of the Democratic Party in Albania, Lulzim Basha accused today the two governing allies of running people with criminal records for the June 21 local government elections.

During the meeting of the democrat parliamentary group, Basha said that decriminalization is a decisive moment. Basha said that PM Edi Rama is not able to separate himself from people with criminal records and not defend them when they appear in front of the prosecution and police.

Several thousand supporters of Albania's opposition centre-right Democratic Party showed their strength in Tirana on Thursday at a rally demanding the resignation of the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

Tom Doshi, a former Socialist Party MP, has caused ructions by claiming that Meta paid an assassin to have him and one other MP killed.

A survey by the Institute for Development Research and Alternatives, IDRA, said many Albanian were aware of people being promised gifts or favours in exchange for votes in elections.

“About 43 per cent of respondents declared they were aware of cases in which votes were promised in return for favours,” IDRA said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Voting ‘to keep their current job’; to 'get a job after the elections’; and ‘in return for money or gifts’, are mentioned as frequent phenomena encountered by more than a third of the respondents,” it added.

Data from the World Bank show that Macedonia leads the western Balkan region in terms of gender equality when it comes to the percentage of women MPs in parliament.

According to the World Bank, 34.1 per cent of Macedonia’s parliament is made up of women MPs - the highest quota in the region.  

Serbia comes second in the region with 33.2 per cent, while Kosovo is close behind, with 31 per cent.

The Mjaft Movement, a Tirana-based watchdog organisation, accused the Albanian government of fulfilling only seven of 17 promises which it pledged to uphold in its first 100 days.

Out of the 17 electoral promises made by the centre-left government of Prime Minister Edi Rama that Mjaft evaluated as part of its Truthometer project, seven were realised, seven were not realised, one was judged to be unmeasurable and two others were only party fulfilled.

Rama’s government took office in September, promising to usher in a ‘renaissance’ for Albania.

The opposition Democratic Party will hold a march on Thursday in Tirana to protest against what it calls the government’s betrayal of its campaign promises.

Announcing the rally in Tirana, Albania's former Democratic Party Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, said Edi Rama's new left-of-centre government had based "everything on deception, falsity and violence against the opposition and the people”.

“The fraud committed by Edi Rama in turning his electoral platform upside down is quickly making his government illegitimate,” he added.