Disagreements between Albanian political parties could reduce the chances of the temporary committee for the reform of electoral legislation discussing the return of guaranteed mandates. Although some Albanian politicians have announced that they could boycott the next elections, if they are not provided with secure mandates, even in the ruling coalition they have not shown any interest in discussing it so far.
The executive director of the Civic Alliance (GA) Boris Raonic believes that, during the reform of electoral laws, the story of guaranteed mandates could take a back seat due to discord within the Albanian political bloc.
"Unfortunately, the negotiating position of the Albanian parties is weak at the moment, and the great division and ambitions for the primacy of some Albanian political entities further complicates the position. At the same time, the other minority parties also have no motive to support this idea, and the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) showed in Ulcinj that it has finally become the dominant political option among Albanians, so they will wisely leave it to others to make sense of this idea," claims Raonic.
The post-election agreement between the "Albanians resolutely" coalition and the DPS stipulates, among other things, that the issue of guaranteed mandates be resolved by 2020, when regular parliamentary elections are expected. The current Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament stipulates that so-called minority lists, which indicate this in the election application, acquire the right to participate in the distribution of mandates individually if none of them exceeds the threshold of three percent. This abolished the legal solution according to which Albanians had separate polling stations and guaranteed mandates in the areas where they are the majority.
While the president of the Albanian Alternative (AA) Nik Đeljošaj called for a boycott of the elections if the issue is not resolved, other Albanian parties demanded that the issue be resolved through electoral reforms. Representatives of the Albanian parties agreed on regular consultations with Genci Nimanbegu, who will participate in the work of the parliamentary committee, while Nikola Camaj from the Democratic Alliance and Fatmir Đeka from
Democratic parties said that Nimanbegu is not represented there by all Albanian parties. Yesterday, Nimanbegu did not answer the question of "Vijesti" whether disagreements between Albanian parties could affect the debate on guaranteed mandates, but during a meeting with representatives of other Albanian parties, he assessed that the existing electoral law is discriminatory.
"Albanians, out of the four MPs we had in 2011, after two election cycles have reduced to only one," the announcement states. It was decided to continue with the meetings of Albanian political entities, as well as to form a forum that will begin with steps to bring together the political positions of all Albanian political entities in Montenegro," the announcement after the meeting states.
Camaj: We are not going to consolidate someone's trading positions
Camaj points out that it is not clear whether the representatives of the coalition "Albanians resolutely" in the working group can return the guaranteed mandates "which belong to acquired and then taken away rights".
"I don't know how realistic it is to expect that our requests will be taken into account if they are "advocating" for them precisely those who have always supported without any conditions all the proposals of the majority, which is not very favorable to our requests. This is also the reason why we did not join the consultations, because we do not believe in the perseverance of those who are supposed to represent us, considering that they prioritize the interests of the party, rather than the interests of the Albanians," said Camaj.
He claims that not all parties stand behind the representative of the "Albanians Resolutely" coalition and that he represents only part of the Albanian voters.
"Parties that had more support, thanks to them directly, remained out of parliament. So if, by their behavior in the SEC, they were advocating to remain the only representatives, you might think that they will act differently now and that they will persist in the demands that we have been advocating for for years. We do not want to strengthen anyone's trading positions, nor to legitimize half-hearted solutions", he said.
Bonus video:
