Albanian Parliament Fails on Second Voting Round to Elect a New President

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo- The Albanian Parliament has failed again in nominating a name for the next Consensual Albanian President with the second round of voting considered ‘burned’. The thirs round of voting is planned for April 27th.

In less than 12 hours since the first meeting, the legal Affairs Committee met today to verify if there is any presidential nomination from ruling majority parties, as the opposition democrats are currently boycotting parliament.

According to the head of Legal Affairs Committee Vasilika Hysi, ‘there were no specific names nominated by the political parties, which categorically implies that even the second round of presidential election has failed.’

According to the Constitution, the third round for the Presidential Election should take place within a week, and the next president should be voted with a majority of 84 deputies.

Speaking after the ‘exhausted’ voting round, Speaker of Parliament Ilir Meta said the Conference of Chairmen, the highest decision making body of the Albanian Parliament, decided the next vote to be held on April 27th.

“I believe this is enough time to enable a dialogue with the opposition, not only for the President, but also or a solution to the current political crisis. We stand for cooperation, dialogue and consensus. We want the opposition to participate in elections which should be guaranteed to be free and fair,” – said Meta after today’s plenary.

Yesterday, the first round of voting was ‘exhausted’ with no proposals offered. This means the SP-LSI majority have used the constitutional provision allowing them to vote even if no candidate is brought forward, accelerating the process while giving the opposition democrats another chance to propose a consensual candidate.

If all five rounds of voting fail to produce a new president, the parliament has to be dissolved and the country goes to early elections in 45 days.