The Chairman of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group, Niko Peleshi, spoke about the pre-election situation in Albania and the recent arrests of political figures on the orders of SPAK.
Peleshi said in an interview from Korça that despite the political situation and the SPAK arrests, the May 11 elections will be held on the scheduled date, without anything being changed.
"Nothing can affect the election date, so the elections are on May 11, I invite all Albanians, wherever they are here or in the diaspora, to vote, undoubtedly the Socialist Party is for voting and continuing the ambitious governing program," Peleshi said, among other things.
Excerpts from the interview with Pelesh:
-Several changes to the electoral code have been approved, what do they contain and was this agreed upon with the DP?
"The changes to the electoral code could not have been approved if we did not have the votes of the opposition. Despite the debates, we reached an agreement and, as you have followed, the electoral code package was approved almost by consensus. They are very important, the diaspora vote was sanctioned by the current code with the changes of last year and these changes make the vote even more possible for our compatriots beyond the continent."
The first is related to the deadlines, so I said that our voters beyond the continent are favored, because with the deadlines passed in the electoral code, there were few days left to produce the ballot to send and return it, previously 25 days, now another 10 days have been added, this is enough time to deliver the ballot to the appropriate address in Europe or beyond and return it. It is a difficult process since the postman has to find everyone there, but now with the extension of the deadline it is possible for anyone to vote in the diaspora across the globe. Free, even the return is stationed in the electoral code, so practically the cost is zero, all you need is the will to register now, so I take this opportunity to call on those who have not yet registered to register by March 4 so that they have the opportunity to vote by mail. The other change has to do with the composition, the opposition requested that the composition be bipartisan, the composition of the counting commission at the CEC, where the diaspora votes are collected and counted and then counted in the boxes of the respective district.
-Will immigrants who do not have an Albanian card or passport vote?
"No, with the changes to the code, nothing like this is foreseen, the opposition has raised this issue, but we are not against the vote of every Albanian wherever they are, a small part of 7-8% turn out to be not equipped with an Albanian biometric document, it is impossible to identify an identity card and serve as an ID tool to vote in Albania. Because the CEC does not have the entire civil status database worldwide, therefore this was impossible."
-What about the registration of parties and electoral coalitions?
"I spoke about the time available for mail, but that time is created by the approaching deadline for submitting the list of candidates, from 50 days before the elections it has now become 60 days before the elections, political parties must submit the list of candidates for MPs, that is, by March 12," said Peleshi.
-Given the political situation, will there be elections on May 11?
"It is totally speculative to link the events with the elections, they are the culminating process of functional democracy, democracy in action in a country. Nothing can affect the election date, so the elections are on May 11, I invite all Albanians wherever they are here or in the diaspora, to vote, undoubtedly the Socialist Party is for voting and continuing the ambitious governing program," Peleshi concluded. (A2 Televizion)
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