TIRANA, Nov 11 /ATA/ – The ruling Socialist Party will not support an extension of the parliamentary committee tasked with electoral reform beyond November 30, Socialist parliamentary group chairman Taulant Balla said on Wednesday, warning that the party would push through the legislation without opposition support if no agreement is reached.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Conference of Chairpersons, Balla said the ad-hoc Electoral Reform Committee had been given sufficient time to complete its work and that the governing majority had the 84 votes needed to approve the reform unilaterally.
“November 30 is the final deadline for the Electoral Reform Committee. We cannot repeat the same scenario and the same game at the expense of Albania’s European agenda,” Balla said.
He accused the opposition Democratic Party (DP) of boycotting both the special parliamentary committee and the adoption of legislation on political party financing, arguing that the law did not require consensus in the form of 84 votes in parliament.
Balla said he hoped the DP, the largest opposition party, would return to the committee before the deadline, but stressed that the governing majority would proceed without it if necessary.
He said Albania’s efforts to close six negotiating clusters in 2026, complete negotiations on all 33 chapters of its EU accession treaty and conclude the membership process should not be held back by political disputes.
“The Socialist Party has the numbers in parliament to advance our commitment to completing Albania’s EU accession process by 2030,” he said.
The Socialist official added that legislation on political party financing should be adopted by the end of December.
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