What’s the political will of the political subjects, should there be an electoral reform or should we go into elections without it?

16.05.2018

On 4th of May 2018 in the TV debate “Përballje” the topic of the discussion was about the electoral reform and the need to address this issue by the political parties. This discussions’ purpose was to highlight the standing of political parties if they ae enlisting electoral Reform as one of their key topics and what is their real interest in this topic. Likewise, to understand more if there is an accord between political parties that the current general elections law should stay as it is.

The invited guests to discuss about these topics were: Imri Ahmeti – Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Rexhep Hoti – Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Blerim Kuçi – Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Shqipe Pantina – Independent Member of Parliament Group.

Imri Ahmeti from LDK stated that it is necessary that the political parties to express their will and readiness to develop a new electoral law. He also mentioned the three key points that LDK addressed earlier: “There are three points in the request issued by LDK: the first one is that we should sit and agree when matters of national level are at stake; second, to define the principles with which we will address these national level matters; and third, the technical preparation for the elections”. Rexhep Hoti from PDK said that “The reform could implicate the constitutional changes as well, and there should be a national consensus not only among the political subjects but among all the communities and there are a few matters that should be reconsidered: electoral threshold, presidential institution, the zones issue, etc.”

Blerim Kuçi from AAK while talking about the development of electoral reform highlighted that in principle it is a good thing to raise the question if we should have an electoral reform. He stated that for the development of an electoral reform, we should firstly know what we want to change. The independent member of parliament, Shqipe Pantina, in the tv show “Përballje” said that when electoral reform is discussed, there are two things: on one hand is the need for reform in the electoral system, and on the other hand is the need for the change and fulfillment of the actual regulations to pinpoint a few issues. Furthermore, Pantina stated that it is necessary to review the electoral law.

‘This debate was realized in cooperation with D4D institute within the framework of “Advancement of Democratic Processes” project, supported by the Embassy of Switzerland, through the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.’