Albanese verkiezingen voldoen nog niet aan internationale normen (en)
Albania's two main parties were neck and neck as results from Sunday's vote were still being counted on Monday (29 June), while international observers said there were flaws in the way the elections were carried out and the European Union called on Tirana to do better in the future.
The elections were seen as a key democracy test for the country, which two months earlier submitted its EU membership application and aims to be full-fledged member of the bloc in the not-so-distant future.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which had some 400 people observing the elections among the 3,000 monitors on the ground, said there had been "tangible progress" compared to the past. All previous elections since the fall of the Communist regime in Albania in 1991 had been disputed and marred by violence, including those of 2005.
"The country has matured, it has made progress, and many of the fears we had only some months ago have not materialised. I'm certainly happy about the progress we saw," said Wolfgang Grossruck, vice-president of the OSCE parliamentary assembly and special co-ordinator of the OSCE short-term observer mission.
But the international monitors also said there was still much room for improvement, notably citing "the politicisation of technical aspects of the process and violations observed during the campaign, which undermined public confidence in the electoral process."
The OSCE also mentioned allegations of pressure on voters, the use of official events for campaign purposes, and family voting – one family member voting for the whole family - as among the main worries.
"There is also a considerable number of issues that need to be tackled, in particular the polarised political climate," Mr Grossruck said.
'Overshadowed' improvements
The EU, Nato – of which Albania is a member since 1 April – and the Council of Europe all made similar statements.
"I take note of the OSCE/ODIHR preliminary conclusions stating that tangible progress has been made in some areas," EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i stated.
"However, these improvements were overshadowed by the politicisation of technical aspects of the election process as well by violence during the election campaign," he added.
The campaign was marked by isolated cases of violence, including one man shot in an argument over a campaign poster and a deputy of Albania's Socialist Party shot dead by an unidentified killer in his car in the beginning of May.
Another politician from the small conservative Christian Democratic Party was killed in a car explosion ten days before the elections.
"These elections clearly underline the need for the Albanian political leadership, across the party lines, to work hard in order to conduct elections in the future that fully meet international standards and have high public confidence of the Albanian voters," Mr Rehn went on.
Bruce George, the head of the delegation of the Nato Parliamentary Assembly, which also had representatives among the observers, said that there were "positive, but also some negative developments in the conduct of these elections."
"Greater efforts still need to be made by all political forces in order to meet demanding international standards," he said.
It is still too early to make a definite assessment, the OSCE underlined, as vote counting is still ongoing.
With more than half of the election ballots counted Monday night, Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democratic Party coalition had a lead of only one seat over the opposition led by the Socialists and Tirana mayor Edi Rama, Reuters reports.
The Socialist Integration Movement coalition had three seats.
Final results are expected late on Tuesday.
Press Articles
-
-
EUobserver
Press Release
-
-