TIRANA, Oct 19 /ATA/The Ambassador of the European Union in Albania, Luigi Soreca, underlined the importance of guaranteeing the vote of immigrants, despite the challenges and problems that this process is associated with.
Soreca, who attended the International Conference “Out of country vote,” said in his remarks that this is a very fundamental right, emphasizing that Albania will have to decide how to implement out of country vote.
Also, he emphasized that Albania should provide significant safeguards for electoral integrity, enumerating the secrecy of the vote, fair competition and fair representation.
“The right to vote is an important political human right and nowadays providing citizens living abroad the right to vote in their country of origin is very important and the right thing to do. As for out of country vote, it is very important, despite the challenges this option brings. It is not easy and has its own challenges, it is a huge administrative undertaking that incurs huge financial costs. Many countries have had trouble finding the right formula, but that means there’s a lot to learn from. In the end, Albania will have to decide how to implement out of country vote. It will have to offer substantial safeguards for electoral integrity, such as, ballot secrecy, fair competition, fair representation. Before this new system is in place, we believe that it is of great importance that the process be participatory in terms of consultation and it is needed the consensus of all stakeholders involved,” said Soreca.
“I would like to urge all parties to implement without delay all the decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the election processes. The EU has been and continues to be a supporter of Albania to strengthen the electoral system. Strengthening the democratic institutions is at the core of our EU mission in Albania as one of the essential requirements of EU accession. We continue to seek an inter-party insistence on these issues, the Electoral Reform must be consensus-based and there is no other way,” Soreca said.
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