Local elections threatened in Albania

14/02/2011

TIRANA, Albania -- The May 8th local elections are in jeopardy since the political parties are lagging behind in preparations with the Central Election Commission (CEC). In order to discuss the concerns, the head of the OSCE office in Tirana, Eugen Wolfarth, has requested a meeting with President Bamir Topi on Monday (February 14th).

The CEC has managed to form only half of the local commissions to prepare the elections, since the opposition Socialist Party has refused to nominate members from its ranks. International officials criticise this as "anti-constitutional". The CEC has now extended the deadline for nominating members until the end of the week.