OSCE 'Under Pressure' to Draft Positive Report on Albania Election

Head of ODIHR monitoring mission Jonathan Stonestreet speaks during a press conference on the opening of the mission | Photo by : OSCE

“They don’t want us to write what we see,” said the official from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, while noting that the advice from the two ambassadors would not be followed.

The ODHIR election observation mission, launched on March 29, consists of 15 international experts based in Tirana and 24 long-term observers to be deployed throughout the country.

In addition, ODIHR has requested 400 short-term observers to monitor election day proceedings and the counting process. The mission is headed by Jonathan Stonestreet, who has headed several election missions for ODIHR in recent years.

The May 8 elections are seen as a key test of Albania’s democratic credentials following a violent anti-government rally on January 21 that left four protestors dead and has since been the source of a heated dispute between the opposition and the ruling party.

The January 21 unrest has aggravated an already poisoned political climate, which has been in a troubled state since the disputed June 2009 parliamentary elections, narrowly won by the Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

The ODIHR official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the diplomats in Tirana believed that the “ODIHR report for the June 2009 general elections had been too negative,” giving the Socialist opposition the right to contest the polls results.  

Berisha’s ruling Democratic Party and the Socialist opposition have been locked in a power struggle since the elections.

The Socialists allege that Berisha stole the elections through voter fraud, while the ruling majority rejects the accusations as baseless and maintains that the polls were the best the country has ever held.

This article was made possible through the support of the National Endowment for Democracy.