Home > 1.3.2 Freedom of voters to express their wishes > ALBANIA - Joint Recommendations on the Electoral Law and the Electoral Administration
 
 
 
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Paragraph 29
 

 Article 30 stipulates in clause (5) that normative acts, registration of the candidates and subjects, declaration of election results and winners, and decisions related to complaints on the declaration of the results are approved when no less than five members of the CEC vote in favour. Every other decision is taken by a majority of the members present. Further, all decisions must be signed by the chairman and the deputy chairman and by all the members that are willing to sign. These requirements led to deadlock in CEC decision making on several occasions during the 2003 local government elections. The 5-2 voting requirement permits “militant” commission members to block the electoral process and bring democratic processes to a complete halt, placing in limbo the suffrage rights of voters.  Also in clause (5) it is stipulated that decisions of the CEC must be signed by the chairman and the deputy chairman. However, it may be the case that either one is ill or cannot attend the meeting for other reasons. During the 2003 local government elections, the CEC functioned without a deputy chairman. The OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission recommend that clause (5) of Article 30 be amended to provide that a decision is approved when a simple majority of all members of the CEC votes in favour of the decision and that this voting requirement apply to all issues, and that the dual signing requirement be deleted.[22]