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Albania: Albanians are going to the polls on Sunday

2013/06/24

Albanians are going to the polls on Sunday in an election which may prove decisive for the country's next in the EU.

Incumbent Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who has dominated the political scene since the 1990s, is facing off against the leader of the socialist opposition, Edi Rama, for the second time. This time, however, the opposition leader is seen to be in the lead by polls conducted by the Italian Piepoli and IPR Marketing institutes.

Both EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule see the elections as a decisive test for the country's path towards EU integration. Its request for membership was made in 2009 but has been rejected three times by Brussels. Last month the government majority and the opposition managed to pass three laws requesting the status of EU member national candidate.

The European Commission has said that the holding of elections in compliance with international standards is a condition to start membership talks. Albanian has a complex proportional representation system and of the 66 parties in the running, only two are outside of the two major coalitions.

What is of concern is the crisis in the Central Elections Commission, tasked with the government of all process. Left with only four members put forward by the government majority next the three from the opposition resigned, the CEC cannot certify the result, which would require at least 5 votes. The elections are being monitored by over 350 international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and missions from the parliamentary assemblies of the Council of Europe and OSCE, which will submit the preliminary assessment statement on Monday afternoon.

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