Today, the parliamentary opposition group has filed a proposal outlining four main changes in the electoral system at the Political Council on Electoral Reform.
Three of the four proposed changes would entail amendments to the Constitution. It is notable that all the proposals contain the introduction of open MP lists, via which voters will choose the person that represents them in parliament themselves. Currently the Albanian electoral system is based on regional proportional representation and is organized around closed MP lists drafted by the heads of political parties.
The first proposal, the installment of a national proportional representation system, would count the nation as a single constituency, with the total percentage of votes a party receives granting it an equal percentage of MPs. It would also entail open MP lists, with every voter being able to pick up to 5 MPs.
The second proposal would similarly entail open MP lists, as well as amending the existing system to entail the election of 100 MPs via regional proportional representation, and the election of the remaining 40 from a national list containing MPs from only those political parties that receive more than 2.5% of the national vote.
The parliamentary opposition’s third proposal, which would not entail any changes to the Constitution, would amend the existing system by grouping the 12 current electoral constituencies into 4 electoral regions, and would open the MP lists to offer citizens a higher degree of choice.
Finally, the fourth proposal would introduce a mixed majoritarian-national proportional representation system, similar to one implemented in Albania in 2005. According to this system, 100 out of 140 MPs would be elected from single-member constituencies, whereas the remaining 40 would be elected from a national list containing MPs from only those political parties that receive more than 2.5% of the national vote.
According to the Political Council schedule, these proposals will be discussed on March 10.
