BIRN: SP issues ultimatum to opposition on electoral reform, warns it will use the power of cardboard votes in parliament! Experts call for consensus

The head of the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, warned on Tuesday that the majority will carry out electoral reform with or without the opposition, a statement that, according to civil society and the opposition, risks the legitimacy of the elections.

The Socialist majority warns it will use the force of cardboard votes in parliament to push forward electoral reform, just days after unilaterally approving the new territorial map.

The head of the SP parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, accused the Democratic Party on Tuesday, as the largest parliamentary opposition party, of holding this reform hostage and said it would be completed within the set deadlines.

“I very much hope that electoral reform will not be unilateral, but I want to remind the Democratic Party that the final deadline for this commission is approaching, which is the end of November,” Balla said in a statement to the media.

He said the deadlines were also linked to the country’s obligations to meet the conditions for European Union membership, where the approval of laws related to electoral reform is expected within this year.

Meanwhile, he invited the opposition to join the discussion on proposals related to constitutional changes, returning to Prime Minister Edi Rama’s idea of reducing the number of MPs from 140 to 101.

But the statement was met with criticism from the opposition and civil society organizations.

“This mafia-style threat that treats the Constitution as a bargaining chip is a disgrace for a country that is in the European integration process,” Democratic Party MP Ina Zhupa told BIRN, commenting on Balla’s statement.

She added that a unilateral electoral reform risks the legitimacy of the elections.

“It risks representation, it is used as a pressure tool against the opposition, creating the possibility of a constitutional supermajority,” she said regarding the SP proposal. According to Zhupa, the Democratic Party is at the table on principles and to address everything that came out of the OSCE/ODIHR report, and is not there “to bargain over representation.”

For electoral affairs experts, the majority bears the main political responsibility for implementing this reform in line with OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and the standards set by the Venice Commission, but this reform must be carried out with parliamentary consensus.

“Parliamentary consensus stems from the very nature of electoral reform, which sets the rules of political competition and, for this reason, cannot be treated as a matter for a single majority,” Afrim Krasniqi from the Institute of Political Studies told BIRN.

“Albanian experience has shown that consensus-based reforms have had more sustainability, while unilateral interventions in the rules of the game have produced tensions and political crises,” he added.

According to Krasniqi, if the reform also includes constitutional changes, the need for consensus becomes even greater.

The Constitution’s requirement for a qualified majority of votes makes political compromise between the majority and the opposition indispensable. He suggests that any debate on this issue should not be limited only to the number of MPs, but should also include other issues related to institutional architecture, political representation, and the functioning of democracy.

“Precisely for this reason, any constitutional intervention must be subjected to a serious, open, transparent, and inclusive process, with the participation of institutions, the opposition, experts, and civil society,” Krasniqi emphasizes.

Balla’s statement is seen as concerning for the consensus that both electoral reform and constitutional reform require in principle.

Rigels Xhemollari from “Qëndresa Qytetare” sees Balla’s statement as concerning and says that “it cannot be called a reform when it is done by just one party.”

“This would be a unilateral law and would risk the legitimacy of the elections,” he told BIRN.

As for the proposal to change the Constitution, he calls it an invitation to “bargaining” that the majority extends to the opposition, rather than the start of a political dialogue and consultation as the basis on which a constitutional reform should be built./BIRN