Tabaku criticizes the May 11 elections: OSCE report speaks of violations of the Copenhagen criteria

Democratic Party MP, Jorida Tabaku, criticized today the May 11 election process, which the DP considered an electoral farce.

During her speech at the EU-Albania Stabilization and Association Parliamentary Committee, Tabaku stated that the OSCE/ODIHR report speaks of violations of the Copenhagen criteria in the May 11 elections.

She continued by saying that in 12 years of Prime Minister Edi Rama's government, Parliament was unable to implement an electoral reform, writes A2 CNN.

Tabaku's speech:

First of all, thank you very much for the opportunity to exchange views, although it is not normal to have such a session after the elections with the outgoing parliament, while the new parliament starts in September. I had some issues and questions related to what both the Commission and the external services raised. After the elections, of course the most important thing for us, as a political party but also as a parliament, are the issues related to the elections.

I have followed the report in the European Parliament with great interest, together with some other colleagues, and I would like to thank Mr Schieder, but also Mr Andriukovachev for that report and for the work of all the political groups, in particular on the elections. And this also relates to a question for the Commission and the external services. The issues that have been raised in the OSCE/ODIHR report are different from any other time.

The report talks about violations of the Copenhagen criteria. It talks about the use of public resources. It talks about the influence of the public administration and its involvement in the electoral process. It talks about the use of public funds for elections, but also about the influence of criminal groups in some cities. These were the first elections with open negotiations, and I believe that this was a missed opportunity for Albania. Not only were the Copenhagen criteria violated, but also the Council of Europe guidelines, the European Convention on Human Rights, the framework for national minorities, the ODIHR guidelines on democratic legislation, as well as several other conventions to which Albania is a party.

I regret to say that in the last 12 years, the Albanian Parliament has not been able to implement a comprehensive electoral reform that addresses all of these issues. But beyond that, many of these issues are related to political will. How should we proceed and how should we start the new session in September, given that elections and fundamental rights are part of the first cluster, the foundations, which was opened first, but as recognized by everyone here, must be closed for integration and negotiations to move forward?

Secondly, we also discussed during the visit a few weeks ago to the European Parliament that Albania has an advantage that no other country in the region has. The opposition has supported the European integration process. The opposition has supported this process not only with words, but with concrete political actions. But we want this process to be used to really change and transform the country.

Nobody needs an integration process where things happen only on paper, while democratic standards and norms do not change in practice in the country. So my call to all participants here is: let's use this process, firstly to change the elections, to talk about the problems that the elections had – and I was very happy that the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee announced that a fact-finding mission will be carried out early next year. And secondly, let's see how this integration and EU membership process will be used to improve the elections and continue the discussion about them.

These were my initial comments for this first part of the meeting.

Thank you. (A2 Televizion)