II. General comments

It is doubtful that the recurrent problems with conducting democratic elections in Albania could be resolved through changes in electoral legislation alone. The recent experience with the local elections in Albania shows that even comprehensive and detailed electoral legislation will not ensure the conduct of elections in full conformity with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and other international standards in the absence of good will among key electoral stakeholders to implement the law in an impartial and fair manner. This is due, in particular, to an environment characterised by severe polarisation and a lack of trust among the two main political parties. A change of attitude and practices by the main political groupings and their leaders is therefore of vital importance, as is the impartiality of the electoral administration. It has, however, also to be acknowledged that election results in Albania tend to be quite close and that only a few votes (less than 100 of 240,000) separated the two main candidates in the elections for the Mayor of Tirana. In such circumstances, every detail becomes potentially decisive and the task of the election administration to act impartially is crucial. This is not to say, however, that weaknesses in the Code which were exposed during the recent elections in Albania should not also be addressed.