Albania Parties Fail to Elect 'Consensus' President

After an impasse between the parties over the election of a new president in the three first rounds, the election is now effectively in the hands of PM Edi Rama's ruling Socialists.

Albanian parliament. Photo credits: parliament.al

The last chance for Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party to propose names for the new President – who must be elected in June – expired on Sunday, when it failed to do so, in the third round of the election.

The date for a fourth session is yet to be decided. Democratic Party parliamentarians did not show up to vote in the parliament.

The head of the ruling Socialist Party’s parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, on Monday said that his party “will not leave the country without a president”, adding, however, that it was still open to dialogue “with anybody who will share the responsibility for electing the president”.

Balla added that some names had been identified that could fulfill the conditions, but did not mention specific ones.

Enkelejd Alibeaj, head of the Democratic Party’s parliamentary group, accused the Socialists of breaking the agreement between the parties on the election process.

“We lost a chance to give Albania and Albanians an institution that would had the legitimacy among [all] the parties,” he said.

According to the constitution, a new president is proposed and elected over five rounds. The first three rounds need the support of 84 out of 140 MPs. The last two need only more than half of the MPs.

Prime Minister Edi Rama’s governing Socialists have 74 MPs, elected in the last general elections of April 21 2021.

So, after the three failed rounds, which required a wider consensus for anyone to be elected, the Socialists will now be almost able to propose and elect a president of their own liking.

Based on the agreement between the opposition and governing Socialists, in the first three rounds only the main opposition party had the right to propose names for a new President.

The Democrats later withdrew from the process, accusing the Socialists of breaching the agreement to elect a “consensus” President, who would be above the parties.

According to Alibeaj, his party would propose four candidates, and the Socialists would choose two of them. After this, the parties would agree on one name through a joint committee – but the Socialists withdrew from that last step.

Current President Ilir Meta was elected in 2017, after his Socialist Movement for Integration, SMI, had governed for four years with Rama’s Socialists following the elections in 2013.

The Socialists tried twice to oust him from office. The first attempt came after Meta refused to decree local election results in 2019, after the Democratic Party and his own former party, the SMI, refused to participate in them. In 2020, after consulting with the Venice Commission, the Socialists withdrew their attempt to oust him.

The second attempt came after the general elections in April 2021, when the Socialists accused Meta of interfering in the elections. However, the Constitutional Court ruled later that he didn’t violate the constitution as was alleged.