New Proposal to End Political Standoff in Albania

In the letter, published on Tuesday, Edi Rama drops the opposition's longstanding request for a recount of ballots, but seeks to gain access to electoral materials such as vote tallies, voter signatures and electoral lists in order to push forward an investigation.

“This offer is based on the resolution of the European Parliament … to immediately create a [parliamentary] investigative commission, headed by an opposition member and with an opposition majority, with a full mandate to investigate the electoral materials without including the ballots,” writes Rama.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha has not presented an opinion on the proposal but has requested that the Socialists file it officially in parliament.  
For more than a year the Socialists have requested a ballot recount of the June 2009 elections –narrowly won by Berisha’s Democratic Party led coalition – arguing that they were marred by fraud.

Berisha’s Democrats maintain the polls are the best elections the country has ever held and a recount is impossible because the opposition has exhausted all legal appeals.

Rama explained in the letter that the new offer comes as an attempt to safeguard the country’s interests in its European integration agenda.

On November 9, the European Commission published a negative opinion of Albania’s bid for EU candidate status, citing the prolonged political crisis as one of the main reasons.   

The proposal is the latest development of a political drama that has blocked the country’s reforms toward its EU integration path, incited street protests and witnessed a 21-day hunger strike by opposition MPs.

Previous attempts at resolving the crisis, spearheaded in turn by President Bamir Topi, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, have failed and local observers warn that there is no guarantee that latest opposition proposal will be accepted by the majority.   
Political annalist Lutfi Dervishi, notes that both the socialists and the democrats, Albania’s main political powerhouses for nearly two decades, have “a complete mistrust of each other, which borders on paranoia,” and makes it very difficult to find a compromise.  

“Albania’s political class is detached from reality and [political] calculations are made within a small group of people who represent clan interests rather that those of the public,” Dervishi told Balkan Insight.