Political turmoil in Albania

Eleven lawmakers from small Albanian opposition parties have started a hunger strike to protest a draft electoral law

Photo: Albanian lawmakers during the seconde day of hunger strike inside the parliament

Eleven lawmakers from small Albanian opposition parties have started a hunger strike to protest a draft electoral law. The deputies, some of whom belong to a party in Prime Minister Sali Berisha's governing coalition, claim the draft law is aimed at keeping small parties out of Parliament. Ilir Meta of the opposition Socialist Movement for Integration said Monday the hunger strike was "the only democratic and civil means" of protest the small parties are left with. Berisha's governing Democratic Party and the main opposition Socialist Party backed the constitutional amendments in April regarding small parties.

Third biggest political party threatens with protests Socialist Movement for Integration, the third biggest political party in Albania, threatened with protests after an informal compromise reached by ruling Democratic Party and Socialist Party in opposition, to exclude small political forces from monitoring the electoral process. In the most aggressive language used since many times in Albanian politics, LSI officials threatened with violent protests. “They cannot halt our aim even if they use gunfire”, Petrit Vasili, General Secretary of LSI said.

Dritan Prifti, another LSI official said that its party will run a “democratic revolution”. During last two years, two biggest political parties in Albania had managed the electoral reform process. Small parties think that the reform aim to exclude them from political life. The majority created by government and the opposition, had changed the constitution and adopted a regional proportional system, decreasing sharply hopes for small parties to gain a important share in the next parliament.

The last compromise projected the exclusion of small parties like LSI from being represented in the Electoral Commission, an institution that should manage electoral process and vote counting. Vote counting had been the most criticized part of the election in Albania. Created in 2004 by a group of former socialist party officials, LSI had managed to gain 8.4% of the votes in 2005 general elections and 5 PM’s.