"Immigrants, vote by mail"/ SP's proposal for the 2025 elections: Registration up to three months before the elections

2024-03-14 21:07:03Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"Immigrants, vote by mail"/ SP's proposal for the 2025 elections:
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The tick takt of the electoral reform commission is coming to an end and 7 days from the end of the deadline, the production of a concrete product already seems an impossible mission.

Over the course of two days, the online meetings were moved to a technical discussion table with the mediation of OHDIR experts where the jurists of the majority and the opposition presented their drafts. With or without a special commission, the socialists have ready the draft for changing the electoral law.

The reform of the electoral code is also imposed by the Constitutional Court, where one of the decisions talks about the vote of the diaspora, an element that all parties seek, but in different forms. The Socialists took a step forward in realizing voting from abroad by presenting to the OHDIR experts' table their proposal that envisages diaspora voting by mail, while there will be no dedicated mandates for them.

According to this proposal, the vote of the emigrants will be counted in the county where they last lived in Albania. In other words, they will vote for the list of candidates for deputy of the district where they had their last residence in Albania. Thus, the presence or not of diaspora representatives in the lists of candidates for MPs remains at the will of the party leaders, as they are the latter who draw them up. In addition to the method of voting and the calculation of the vote, the socialists propose that the counting of the votes of the diaspora be done in the Central Election Commission and not be distributed among the districts, centralizing it as a process, while the registration of immigrants is left in the hands of the CEC, no later than 90 days from the election day.

Regarding the depoliticization of election commissions, the leftists are of the opinion that they should be from the ranks of the public administration who enjoy the status of civil servants.

In the context of the transparency of political party funds, the socialist experts, Viktor Gumi and Eridian Salianji, requested that the Electoral Code establish a specific deadline for the transfer of funds from the state budget to political parties, as well as an increase in public funding for independent candidates. Any public activity during the 30-day election campaign must be prohibited regardless of whether it was planned or not with funds from the state budget.

On March 21, the term of the reform commission expires and the socialists have no plans to extend their lives, but in agreement with the Reestablishment, they will move the work to a new structure that will be set up for the electoral law and reforms that require a qualified majority./ TCH


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