Parliamentary opposition MP Rudina Hajdari has announced her intention to create a new political party.
In a press statement on Saturday, Hajdari said the party will be ready to run in the 2021 elections.
She slammed extra-parliamentary opposition parties Democratic Party and Socialist Movement for Integration for monopolizing opposition in Albania, in order for it to benefit only certain families: “I am not in parliament to support my family interests but I’m here to represent the people’s interests.”
Hajdari said she has fought to open MP lists in the next elections, which the big opposition parties do not support. She accused them of stepping back from their promise to support the initiative. “I entered [parliament] through closed lists as the daughter of Azem Hajdari but I want to leave as Rudina Azem Hajdari,” she said.
Political parties in Albania run in elections with a closed list of MP candidates usually decided by the party leader.
The ruling Socialist majority recently supported the proposal of 28 MPs to open MP lists, but the extra-parliamentary opposition has claimed that it would violate their agreement on electoral reform which is yet to be approved in parliament.
