Albanian Parliament kicks off President vote – amid opposition boycott and no candidates at sight

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – Albania’s Parliament is to start preparations for the first round of voting for the country’s new President, after a request from the socialist party parliamentary group.

Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta called the board of parliamentary committee heads this morning to kick of the process of electing a new President of Albania, after socialist parliamentary group chair Gramoz Ruci had requested the start of the procedures yesterday.

The parliament’s chairmanship decided to go ahead with the start of voting procedures with the first round to be held on April 19th after a group of 20 MPs proposes to parliament their candidate.

Voting can go over five rounds in total secrecy and without debates. During the first three rounds a three fifth majority is needed to approve a candidate, while at the last two rounds, a simple majority is required to elect a new President, a new controversial rule approved during the infamous 2008 constitutional changes reached between Albania’s two major parties.

As the opposition democrats are currently boycotting parliament, and have refused to register for upcoming general elections planned for June, questions are being raised as to the motivation of the ruling socialists to start the process in April, given that parliament has until July to start voting.

If the ruling center-left SP-LSI coalition opts to elect a new President without the consent of the opposition, this may further escalate Albania’s deep political crisis.

Albania’s Speaker and chair of ‘king-making’ coalition partner LSI has said that the new President should be as consensual as possible. Such calls have been echoed by the smallest partner of governing coalition PDIU.

The constitution of the country makes it clear that if after five rounds of voting no candidate gets the required votes, parliament is dissolved and the country goes to early elections in 45 days.

According to the country’s constitution, Albania’s President serves as head of state but has little leverage to affect political decision making in the country. The current president of Albania is Bujar Nishani who was proposed by the Democratic Party in 2012.