Oerd Bylykbashi, opposition representative in the newly established Political Council on Electoral Reform, has said that the electoral reform approval in March needs to be followed by early elections.
The Political Council was created yesterday for the opposition to avoid having to seat in the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform. They had maintained that the committee is co-chaired by an “election rigger”, Damian Gjiknuri, and that the Albanian Parliament is “illegitimate”.
Bylykbashi stated last night that early elections “immediately” after approval of electoral reform is the only way to test it and end the political crisis in Albania, in accordance with the Bundestag’s conditions.
“[In March 2020] the reform process will be closed, the electoral reform issue as one of the conditions [for EU accession talks] is gone, and the path to early elections is opened; the path is opened immediately after that. There is no other solution not only for the crisis in Albania, Bundestag also says the same: Test the reform!”
General elections in Albania are normally expected to be held in summer 2021.
Tuesdays’s agreement achieved one of the main opposition objectives, he said, that of co-drafting the electoral reform outside of the “illegitimate parliament” and in full consensus among all parties.
