TIRANA, July 14 /ATA/ The Parliamentary Law Committee approved today with 19 votes in favor and 1 against the amendments to the Electoral Code, which pave the way for the vote of the Diaspora.
The Socialist Party (SP) and the Democratic Party (DP) joined the votes for the approval of the changes in the Electoral Code, while the opposition MP Enkelejd Alibeaj voted against. He said that, “It is not a vote against the Diaspora, but against the SP-DP bargain”.
Socialist Party MP Damian Gjiknuri explained the changes proposed by the Diaspora vote to the 1/3 of the closed list, while emphasizing that, “The law must be uniform for everyone”.
Chairman of the DP parliamentary group Gazment Bardhi said that the realization of the Diaspora vote is a very big achievement, while he recalled that all current MPs are the product of closed lists.
The changes approved in the Laws Committee also include the proposals of Adriatik Lapaj, who requested that the Diaspora ballot paper should be of a different color from those that will be used inside Albania, in order to avoid any possibility of manipulation, as well as the establishment of a special commission waiting for the vote of the Diaspora.
The draft approved in the Laws Committee provides that the ballots sent by voters outside the territory of the Republic of Albania will be counted in the premises of the Central Election Commission.
Likewise, SP and DP have agreed that the electoral threshold should be 1 percent. While the opposition’s proposal for pre-election coalitions was not accepted.
Meanwhile, according to these changes, 1/3 of the lists of MPs will be closed, while the rest will be open.
The most recent changes to the Electoral Code also came as a result of the decisions of the Constitutional Court on the vote of emigrants. /m.m/r.e/p.s./
