Three opposition members of the Central Electoral Commission (KQZ), Hysen Osmanaj, deputy chairman, Vera Shtjefni and Klement Zguri have reacted after the decision taken by KQZ chairman Denar Biba not to verify the lists of candidates for deputies of some political parties that Premier Edi Rama tries to sell as opposition.

“The Central Electoral Commission, in its meeting of May 7^th 2017 would inspect some project-decisions of the approval of the multiple names list of the candidates for deputies presented by the political parties”, the three KQZ members say in their declaration.

“We noticed irregularities/discrepancies among supporting signatures in the list and those put in the copies of the identity cards. We requested the verification of the documentation. The request was in full accordance with the Electoral Code and it is an obligation of KQZ to verify the supporting signatures of the electors for the candidates and exclude the irregular signatures, as the Article 71 of the Electoral Code defines”.

“The Chairman of KQZ refused to follow this procedure and brought down our request through voting not based on the law”.

“This abusive decision-taking follows the trend of illicit decision-taking from KQZ, as it happened with the registration of the candidates list beyond the legal deadline. We, as KQZ members, express our concern that this attitude of KQZ is threatening the electoral process and encouraging and opening the way to electoral manipulations”.