The Central Election Commission (KQZ) has approved the candidate lists of 9 of the 17 parties registered for the June 18 parliamentary elections. Parties whose lists were approved included Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party (PS) and former president Bamir Topi’s New Democratic Spirit (FRD).
The PS was fined 1 million lekë for not conforming to the legal gender quota in Berat County.
Parties whose lists were not yet approved include President-Elect Ilir Meta’s Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) and the new parties Libra of former PS deputy Ben Blushi and Sfida for Tirana mayoral candidate Gjergj Bojaxhiu.
In a separate press release, as has become common recently, the opposition members of the KQZ denounced the decision of KQZ chairman Denar Biba not to further investigate irregularities on the lists of signatures presented by some of the new parties.
Three members of the KQZ found that for several electoral subjects there were irregularities/inconsistencies between the supporting signatures on the lists and those put on the copies of the ID cards.
We requested the verification of this documentation. This request was in full accordance with the Electoral Code and it is the duty of the KQZ to verify the supporting signatures of the voters for candidates and to exclude irregular signatures, as determined in art. 71 of the Electoral Code.
The chairman of the KQZ refused this procedure and overthrew our request with a vote that is not supported by the law.
Both Prime Minister Rama and foreign ambassadors have tried to promote these new parties as a “new opposition.”
