KQZ Approves Ballot Order, Debate about Smaller “Opposition” Parties

The Central Election Commission (KQZ) yesterday approved the order of the parties on the voting ballot. 15 parties have been approved, and ordered starting with the New Democratic Spirit (FRD) until the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) and Socialist Party (PS) in the end.

During the meeting yesterday, the KQZ also approved, without the votes of the opposition members, the candidate lists of the remaining parties.

The three opposition members, Hysen Osmanaj, Klement Zguri, and Vera Shtjefni, had requested the reevaluation of the the documentation of the FRD, and the new parties Libra and Sfida, having found irregularities in the signature lists supporting their participation in the elections.

KQZ chairman Denar Biba refused their request, while the opposition members called Biba’s decision illegal, and damaging to the independent role of the KQZ.

Opposition leader Lulzim Basha responded to this issue, stating that the signatures may have been gathered by state institutions such as the OSShE and the National Employment Service:

This illegal action to refuse transparency aims to cover the truth of fake signatures and of signature gathered by public enterprises and institutions, including the OSShE and the National Employment Service, which have forced their employees to sign for political parties that have neither members nor an organization. Those parties are serving in 2017 as a shameful facade for a pseudo-pluralism à la Ramiz Alia.