The leader of the Democratic Party, the main party of the opposition in Albania, Lulzim Basha, declared on Wednesday that “the Democratic Party will not form a coalition for the sake of being in power, but it’s ready to fight a frontal war with crime and corruption”.
In Albania, Socialist Movement for Integration of the parliamentary speaker, Ilir Meta, doesn’t rule out a possible reunification with the right wing in the future, as long as this serves to the interest of the country and the citizens.
Commenting the possible return to cooperating with Democratic Party, leader of the SMI, who is a speaker of the Albanian Parliament, Ilir Meta, alludes that the 2009-2013 period may be repeated.
“What’s important for us is for SMI to serve to the country in terms of governing”, Meta says.
Opposition in Albania says that the country is making steps backwards and that the damaging democratic standards is a serious threat to the future of Albania.
The leader of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, has launched a campaign of information, as he called, with international authorities and European politicians, to brief them on the problems of the country.
Mr. Basha received in a meeting the Political Director at the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Jan Kickert and the head for Western Balkan, Johann Sattler.
Socialist Movement for Integration, led by the speaker of Parliament, Ilir Meta, has achieved very good results in the local government elections held a few weeks ago.
In 61 municipalities, SMI has managed to come out as a winner in 11 of them, while in 21 other municipalities, SMI has managed to be ranked second.
This way, SMI has ruined the traditional ranking which has existed in the past 25 years, where the two first places were always occupied by the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party.
Leader of the Democratic Party in Albania, Lulzim Basha, accompanied by the leader of the Republican Party, Fatmir Mediu and a delegation of the opposition, met today in Vienna with the Secretary General of OSCE, Lamberto Zannier and representatives of the permanent Council of the ambassadors of this mission.
During this meeting, Basha has thanked the mission of observers who monitored the June 21 elections and presented the great problems, which according to him, mined the trust of voters on the election process.
Leader of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha has met with the co-rapporteurs of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PA), Mr. Jonathan Evans, Mr. Andrej Hunko, Mr. Bas Klein, vice chairman of the Secretariat of the PA and Mrs. Delphine Freymann, Secretary of the Monitoring Commission of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
During this meeting, Mr. Basha said that the June 23 electoral process has put Albania in the list of countries that do not hold free and honest elections.
Albania's left-wing governing coalition scored a massive victory in last Sunday's local elections, winning about 62 per cent of the vote, while international observers raised concerns about allegations of vote-buying and intimidation.
With more than 92 per cent of the votes counted, the 37 parties of the left-wing ruling coalition won 62 per cent of all votes cast on Sunday while the 15 parties of the main opposition bloc won about 31 per cent.
The rest of the votes were divided among 11 parties that ran outside the two main coalitions.
While voters were offered a distinct choice from among a range of candidates and fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly were generally respected, the politicization of institutions involved in the 21 June local elections in Albania undermined the effective administration of the process, international observers concluded in a statement issued today.
The left-wing coalition headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama won or is leading in key races in the local elections held on Sunday in Albania, but its victory is expected to be much less convincing than in 2013.
With most of the votes counted, left-wing candidates are expected to win key towns like Tirana, Durres, Korca, Elbasan and Vlora, while the opposition held Shkodra and successfully competed in smaller municipalities where it scored some surprising victories in places like Pogradec, Selenica and Permet.
In Albania, following a two day period without any declarations, the main political leaders, head of majority, Edi Rama and that of the opposition, Lulzim Basha publicly addressed the citizens on Tuesday evening.
The first one to address was Basha, who considered the elections as a step backwards for the country and added that the main feature of the process was the massive purchase of votes and the efforts of SP and SMI to rig the polls.
Election day was generally calm without major incidents but the turnout was much lower than in the 2013 general elections.
Preliminary data from the Central Election Commission shows about 45 per cent of voters cast their ballot. This is the lowest turnout in 25 years.
Although 3.37 million Albanians have the right to vote, an estimated one third of them have left the country, seeking a better life. In 2013, about 1.7 million Albanians voted in the general elections with the turnout reaching 53 per cent.
While voters were offered a distinct choice from among a range of candidates and fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly were generally respected, the politicization of institutions involved in the 21 June local elections in Albania undermined the effective administration of the process, international observers concluded in a statement issued today.
The process of ballot counting in Albania is coming to an end and so far, the majority of 61 municipalities has been won by the left wing majority under the logo of the Alliance for European Albania coalition led by Edi Rama and speaker of Parliament, Ilir Meta.
This governing coalition has won the largest municipalities in the country.
The process has been officially concluded in less than half of municipalities. Out of 28 municipalities where the result has been announced, 20 of them have been won by the left wing and only eight of them by the opposition.
Albania’s governing left wing has prevailed in the 21 June local government elections “snatching” a victory in the majority of the towns of the country, including the largest ones.
Up until today (23.06), ballot counting has been completed for 54 out of 61 municipalities. Out of them, 40 have been won by the left wing, 13 by the opposition and one by the Greek minority party, MEGA.
The ballot counting process continues in another seven municipalities and socialists are likely to win most of them too.
La coalición gobernante dirigida por el Partido Socialista (PS) del primer ministro Edi Rama ha ganado con mayoría abrumadora las elecciones municipales celebradas este domingo en Albania, según los datos parciales publicados hoy por la Comisión Electoral Central (CEC).
Con un tercio de las papeletas escrutadas, los candidatos de la coalición de izquierda "Alianza para Albania Europea" (ASHE) se han impuesto en las grandes y más importantes alcaldías del país frente a sus rivales de la agrupación conservadora dirigida por el opositor Partido Democrático (PD).
Former PM and former democrat leader, Sali Berisha has issued a surprising declaration in the early hours of Monday, calling upon the international community to delegitimize the June 21 local government elections in Albania.
This is the first time that Mr. Berisha makes such request in his 25 year political career. When the left wing has made such requests, Mr. Berisha has always condemned them.
Mr. Berisha’s declaration is based in 9 arguments, which according to him, support the request not legitimize the elections.
Albanians on Sunday go to the polls to elect 61 new mayors and 1,610 councillors in local elections that are considered a double challenge for the country.
Polling stations opened at 7am and close at 7pm. About 3.37 million Albanians are eligible to cast votes.
Polls for the local government in Albania have ended without any problems. The polling stations opened at 7 am and closed at 7 pm. Although, based on the law, when there are queues in the polling station, the voting continues beyond the official hours, it was not the case this time as there were not large numbers of voters.
Preliminary turnout figures vary from 40 to 50%.
The Central Election Commission has not yet issued official figures on turnout.
This year’s figures are expected to be lower than in the last polls, when turnout was 60%.
In Albania, the Central Election Commission (CEC) published a little before Sunday midnight, the turnout percentages based on its district.
Following a calculation of the majority of polling stations, the turnout is one million and 530 thousand voters or 57.54% out of 3.4 million eligible voters.
The highest turnout has been marked in the north, in Diber, with around 58% and the lowest turnout in Vlora with around 37%. The counting process has started in a small part of ballot boxes.
Early results indicate a strong advantage of the governing majority.
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