[ALBSA-Info] Various news

[Agron Alibali]

[18] INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS INTERESTED IN BULGARIAN
PIPELINE PROJECT

Several large oil companies, such as Agip, LUKoil,
British 

Petroleum, Chevron, and Epson as well as the U.S.
Eximbank, the 

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and
the World Bank 

are interested in participating in a Trans-Balkan oil
pipeline from 

the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Bourgas, via Macedonia
and Albania, 

to Western Europe, BTA reported on 13 January. At a
meeting one day 

earlier between Regional Development and Public Works
Minister 

Evgeni Chachev and Ted Ferguson, executive director of
AMBO 

(Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil) Corporation, the
two sides 

decided to carry out a feasibility study, the results
of which are 

to be discussed in March. The $980,000 costs of the
study will be 

party covered by the U.S. government, which is to
grant $588,000. MS 
------------------------------------------------------------------------


[C] END NOTE

[19] ROW OVER ALBANIAN ELECTION COMMISSION

By Fabian Schmidt 

The polarization that has plagued Albanian politics
since the 

fall of communism has again made for fresh
controversies. This time 

the issue is the composition of the main election
commission. The 

rightist opposition fears it will be shut out of a
Socialist-run 

body. Not so, says the governing coalition. 

Albanian opposition politicians and their counterparts
from 

the governing coalition have clashed over the
composition of the 

Central Election Commission (KQZ), "Shekulli" reported
on 10 

January. This comes about ten months before local
elections 

scheduled for October. 

The dispute started when officials from the two main 

opposition coalitions--the Union for Democracy, and
the United 

Right--criticized the current legislation on 9
January, arguing that 

the opposition has no guarantees of being able to send
its own 

representatives to the KQZ. The composition of that
commission is 

specified by the constitution, which stipulates that
the president 

and the parliament appoint two KQZ members each. The
High Council of 

Justice--a body elected by an assembly of judges and
lawyers from 

throughout Albania--appoints another three members to
the 

commission. 

(The Union for Democracy, which is dominated by the
Democratic 

Party of former President Sali Berisha, boycotted a
referendum on 

the constitution in November 1998, but the United
Right then called 

on its voters to vote in favor of the draft.) 

With the presidency and the parliamentary majority in
the 

hands of the governing Socialists, Berisha warned that
the KQZ will 

become "a political instrument that will undermine the
possibilities 

of a free vote." He demanded instead that the KQZ be
composed 

equally of representatives of the governing coalition
and of the 

opposition, following the example of a political
compromise reached 

before the 1997 parliamentary elections under OSCE
mediation. Then, 

the governing coalition and the opposition agreed to
apply that key 

for equal representation to all other election
commissions down to 

the level of the polling stations. The chair of each
commission was 

also shared between the government and the opposition.


Berisha argues that with the new constitution, the
governing 

coalition "abandoned the consensus that it reached [in
1997] with 

the opposition." He added that "without reaching a new
consensus, 

this is an immoral thing to do." 

Fatmir Mediu, the chairman of the Republican
Party--the 

largest party within the United Right--pointed out
that "the 

opposition forces have discussed [the possibility]
that they may not 

participate in the elections." He stressed, however,
that the 

"opposition is ready to enter the electoral
process...[if the 

governing coalition agrees to] build a commission that
can guarantee 

a free vote, based on the...consensus that [membership
in the] 

commissions will be shared." 

Mediu added that the current legislation is not clear
enough. 

He argued that the constitution only specifies that
the president 

can name two members of the KQZ, but it fails to
address the 

question who has the right to propose the candidates.
He stressed 

that representatives of the smaller parties within the
governing 

coalition have also raised concern over the current
legislation. 

Mediu suggested that parliament should address the
issue by either 

adopting a new law regulating the composition of the
electoral 

commission, or by amending the constitution, or by
referendum. 

The first of these options is the most likely.
Parliamentary 

Speaker Skender Gjinushi--from the small Social
Democratic Party-- 

rejected a change of the constitution outright. He
stressed that the 

three High Council of Justice representatives within
the KQZ are 

likely to protect the interests of the opposition.
Gjinushi argued 

that the majority of judges in Albania were appointed
during the 

rule of the Democratic Party, because they were
"friends of Mr. Sali 

[Berisha]." He also noted that the governing coalition
has agreed to 

allow the opposition to nominate one of the two KQZ
members to be 

elected by parliament, and that the president will
make his choice 

independently of political party interests. 

Gjinushi stressed that "there is no larger consensus
than a 

constitution. We can not build a state by politicizing
the 

constitution.... [The opposition] demands that the
constitution be 

changed every time the balance of political power
changes or every 

time that the political parties choose to. But this
constitution has 

been adopted by popular referendum and consequently
all changes to 

it will require another referendum." 

But Gjinushi also offered a possible compromise: "I
believe that the 

demands of Mediu and Berisha will be met within the
framework of an 

electoral law that will be in line with the
constitution.... The KQZ 

must not become a body composed of representatives of
political 

parties but a permanent institution made up of
experts....In 

addition, the electoral law will have to stipulate
that a commission 

of monitors will be attached to the KQZ, which will be
composed of 

party representatives." 

14-01-00 
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org

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