Elections : affrontements à Tirana – 18 mai 2011

Albania: Opposition Supporters Clash With Police

eurasiareview.com

May 18, 2011

By Besar Likmeta

Hundreds of Socialist Party supporters, including two dozens MPs, clashed with police in Tirana on Wednesday, accusing the ruling party of illegally overturning the election results in the capital.

The clashes erupted outside Albania’s Central Electoral Commission, CEC, when Socialist MPs tried to storm a CEC meeting where an act was passed that will potentially overturn the 10-vote lead of opposition leader Edi Rama in the race for the municipality of Tirana.

Preliminary data from counting stations of the May 8 local elections show that Socialist Party leader Rama has a 10 vote lead, out of 250,623 valid ballots cast, over his ruling Democratic Party rival Lulzim Basha.

However, the Democrats maintain that in certain polling stations, some ballots for the mayor’s race were cast in the ballot box for city council, and argue that those votes must be added to the final tally.

The seven-member Central Electoral Commission is dominated by members of the ruling party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

In a session on Wednesday that saw heated debates between the commission members, the CEC ordered the recount of the ballot boxes which have been flagged by Democratic Party commissioners at some of Tirana’s counting stations. This is the decision that prompted the clashes between Socialist supporters and police. Read more…