Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – Albania is hours away from its midnight deadline for the registration of opposition parties at the Electoral Election Commission with no political talks at sight, a decision which may plunge the small Balkan country deeper into institutional crisis.
Opposition democrats declared today they would not register at the CEC to take part in general elections scheduled for June 18, while vowing to block local elections in the city of Kavaja planned for the 8th of May.
With no opposition parties registered to participate at upcoming elections, Albania enters an unprecedented institutional and constitutional spiral as the country has never experienced the refusal of a group of parties to take part in elections.
The opposition claims upcoming elections would be jeapordized by dirty drug money being injected into the electoral campaign by criminals linked to ruling socialists, demanding Prime Minister Rama’s resignation and the creation of a technical government which would guarantee free and fair elections.
If the opposition does not register at the CEC by midnight, a constitutional deadline would have been breached as the country’s President has already decreed election date for June 18, which determines all preceding procedurial deadlines.
Any political deal after tonight would require an electoral code and constitutional change in order to amend procedurial deadlines and possibly postpone general elections.
This morning a defiant PM Rama refused to bow down to the opposition’s requests, saying the Socialist Party has no mandates to give up, while he had the responsibility to govern. Rama invited the opposition to negotiate a way out of crisis but added he would not resign from a mandate granted by the people.
All eyes remain on what Rama’s junior partner Ilir Meta who chairs coalition party LSI, will do as he has hinted his party would not enter elections which are boycotted by the opposition.
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