TIRANA, Oct 26 /ATA/ – President of the Republic, Ilir Meta, stated today that he has sent 8 questions for opinion to the Venice Commission regarding the changes to the Electoral Code.
At a press conference, Meta published the questions he addressed to the Venice Commission over the changes to the Electoral Code.
“I inform you of the request from President of the Republic for an urgent opinion on the process of unilateral and fast-track amendment of the Constitution and the Electoral Code to the Venice Commission. President of the Republic, after presenting a formal request of the united opposition and in order to avoid another electoral crisis in Albania, to contribute to the legitimacy and credibility of the electoral process, in order to ensure the minimum international standards for free and fair elections, especially in a situation where the check and balance system is totally dysfunctional, prone to authoritarianism, addressed to the Venice Commission a request to give an urgent opinion on the following questions,” he said.
“Can the basic rules regulating electoral race be changed unilaterally, especially the rules regarding the transformation of votes into mandates between competitors, after the electoral process has started and only 6 months before the election date?”
“If the rules, especially those concerning the transformation of votes into mandates, between competitors, are changed unilaterally and very close to the election date, in order to be advantageous to the party that has introduced the changes, do these changes damage the principles of the rule of law, legal security and equal rules of the game, ie competition, which are key to fulfilling the OSCE commitments for democratic elections? Do these changes compromise the electoral process? “Do they also compromise political stability if they run counter to the consensus of January 24 and June 5 reached by most political parties?”, Meta said.
“Is the principle of procedural guarantees finally violated if such changes to the electoral law and adopted unilaterally and hastily are made in the absence of a functioning Constitutional Court, which can check their compliance with the Constitution and the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights?” ”he said.
“While unilateral changes to the Constitution and the Electoral Code on 30 July and 5 October were not part of the early OSCE / ODIHR recommendations for Albania, is the emergency procedure a legitimate motive to justify unilateral changes by a disputed parliament that does not have the Constitutional quorum of 140 deputies? Was there a compelling need to modify them unilaterally?
“If the legislation approves open lists, while the existing mechanism of electoral coalitions and the relevant formula for allocating seats to coalitions remain as they are currently in force, would the relevant Albanian legislation be in line with OSCE commitments?” Meta said.
“Does the unilateral imposition of changes to the Electoral Code regarding the pre-election coalitions undermine the rights of political parties and their electorate?” Meta stressed.
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