US Ambassador Yuri Kim has called on the Albanian opposition to recognize the results of the April 25 elections, and commended their decision to re-enter parliament after more than two years of boycott.
“In the statement that we issued out of Washington, we noted that it is important for all parties to recognize the results of elections,” Ambassador Kim reiterated when she was asked in a Klan TV interview on Tuesday regarding opposition vows not to recognize the results.
Kim remarked that the OSCE/ODIHR preliminary report on the elections described them as well-administered overall, before adding that the US is also pleased with the way the elections were run in Albania.
“I have to say that the most important part for us is that Albania has been too long without a full opposition in parliament,” Kim said.
The April 25 election results gave the Socialist Party (PS) a third term in office, with the party gaining 74 of the 140 available parliamentary seats. The opposition Democratic Party (PD) won 59 seats, the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) 4, and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) 3.
The opposition claims that the government rigged the latest elections through vote buying, by putting pressure on public servants and through the extensive use of state resources. It has demanded the CEC that elections be repeated in 9 of the 12 country’s districts.
Ambassador Kim stressed that criminal reports and complaints related to the elections must be pursued by prosecutors and the Central Election Commission accordingly.
She commended the electoral reform agreement reached June last year between the majority and opposition. Kim also remarked that while the resulting unilateral modifications made to election legislation by the majority in parliament was not the right model to follow, they nevertheless fell within the parliament’s competencies.
