During a high-level meeting between a bipartisan delegation from the Albanian Parliament and Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commision David McAllister and European Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn, Socialist MP Taulant Balla announced that bipartisan electoral reform would be delivered before Christmas:
I know that there has been a worry about the vacancies created at the Constitutional Court, but better to have vacancies than corrupt judges giving verdicts. In the beginning of next year the new justice institutions will be functional. […] We are ready to vote with the opposition, whom I thank that we are together here today, the electoral reform, the legal package of which is currently ready. I believe we will vote on it before Christmas.
Electoral reform according to the recommendation of the OSCE-ODIHR will be part of the evaluation of Albania with regard to the possible opening of EU accession negotiations next year. European Parliament recently demanded that the Electoral Reform be approved before 2019. In October, opposition party PD published a number of proposals regarding the reform, although the final legal package remains unclear.
In April, the Albanian Helsinki Committee sounded the alarm over the lack of progress with electoral reform.
