Proposed Amendments to Electoral Code Pass First Filter in Parliament

With 11 votes “for”, one “against” and without any “abstentions”, the members of the Committee on Political System assessed that the draft-law on amending the Electoral Code is acceptable and proposed to Parliament to organize a public debate. Only the DUI MP, Fisnike Bekteshi Shaqiri, voted against the proposal to introduce one constituency, but although the other parties voted “for” the continuation of the procedure, they are still far from reaching agreement. At the Committee, besides DUI, there were remarks from the Alliance for Albanians, who propose to have 8 constituencies instead of six, according to the regions in the country. The largest ruling party, SDSM, although it has been advocating for one constituency for many years, now says that in order to vote for a change in the electoral model, it is necessary to have a broad consensus before the request of the smaller coalition partners. Basic support is also given by VMRO-DPMNE.