Electoral reform concluded
11/07/2012

One day before the expiration of the mandate, the Electoral Reform Commission found the compromise for the consensual amends of the Electoral Code.

The three remaining issues were the usage of technology in elections, the way of taking evidence in electoral boxes and the reformation of the Central Election Commission.

As it happens usually with compromises, the variants that are proposed are not 100% as each of the parties wanted them. But on a preliminary evaluation, the opposition has taken more from the compromise.

The first big success is the opportunity to use technology for 20% of the territory. The majority has accepted this, despite the advice of the ODIHR experts for not using technology before 2014, and not without a pilot project in a low scale of usage.

 This consensus predicts that the identification appliance should be used during the voting process in the entire Tirana District, the biggest in the country and that brings 32 MPs to Parliament. While the electronic ballot count will be used for the first time in Fier, the second biggest district in the country that brings 16 MPs to Parliament. The second success of the opposition s that they have been able to include in this process their own concept for way how the Central Election Commission chairman will be elected.

This is a new concept that allows the application of every citizen who thinks that he fulfills the criteria for leading the CEC. This application will be submitted at the Commission of Laws, the only organism that gets involved in the procedures for electing the CEC Chairman.

After receiving the applications, the Commission of Laws identifies the candidates that enjoy the support of 2/3rd of the members. If this will be impossible, the Commission of Laws will elect four candidates that have had the biggest support, and only the opposition has the right to eliminate two of them and the Parliament will vote between the two others.

As for the third issue, the opposition has ceded the concept that two members have the right to open the ballot boxes each time that they find it appropriate. According to the majority, this would destroy the elections and the parties decided to define more specifically what is considered evidence and how it is related with the facts.

The members will have the right to open the boxes based only on this concept, by eliminating the opportunities of abusing during the electoral process. THese changes will be approved this afternoon at the Electoral Reform Commission, which will apparently close its mandate with this big consensus, but without taking in consideration the request of the small parties for correcting the electoral system.