The Socialist Party majority has been seeking for some time to unilaterally change the model of electoral coalitions, in a process that is not transparent and clear to the public.
But what is expected to change and what are the consequences of this change?
In the September 30 show ‘With a few words’ on Euronews Albania, Neritan Sejamini explained what is happening with the amendments to the Electoral Code regarding the pre-election coalitions.
Under the current model of coalitions, parties participating in elections have the right to freely form electoral coalitions among themselves, without any restrictions.
It is enough for them to notify the Central Election Commission in a letter and the coalition is called formed. But despite being part of a coalition, the parties compete as if they were not in a coalition at all.
Thus they compete again against each other, each with a separate list of candidates and in the ballot the citizens vote only the parties and not the coalitions.
We are dealing, therefore, with a coalition only in name, without any obligation in practice.
The Socialist majority has decided to replace this model with separate lists of coalitions with a model of coalitions with a common list of candidates.
In this new model, the parties in the coalition must compete with a joint list of candidates and register as the sole electoral subject.
So, in this case, the citizens on the ballot vote only the coalition, and not the coalition parties, separately.
But why does the socialist majority seek to change the formula of pre-election coalitions?
The PS, which has made it clear several times that it will run alone in the election, is facing a large opposition coalition, which most likely has more votes than the PS alone.
But the current model favors parties running in coalitions and punishes those running on their own.
So in order not to lose power, Prime Minister Edi Rama is changing the formula of coalitions, which he created himself in 2008.
With the current model of pre-election coalitions, parties in pre-election coalitions have the advantage that they can combine the excesses of votes with each other, to supplement the votes needed to get an MP.
Let us take a concrete example:
Assume that 105 votes are needed for a deputy:
Four parties running in the election have achieved the following results:
Party A, competes on its own and received 100 votes.
Parties B, C and D – the villas are in coalition – received 50, 40 and 15 votes.
With these results, none of the parties can get a deputy.
Party A lacks 5 votes, the others much more.
But the coalition parties combine their votes and complete the 105 votes needed for an MP. This MP is given to Party B, which has more votes than the other two in the coalition.
It is this scheme that favors parties in pre-election coalitions that the socialist majority is trying to avoid.
