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Roundup: Albanian politicians urged to solve political impasse, not to hamper integration process

Xinhua, May 6, 2017 Adjust font size:

The European Union ambassador to Albania, Romana Vlahutin, hoped Saturday the country's politicians will have the courage and wisdom to find ways of giving citizens the constitutional right of voting and end the current political impasse.

Vlahutin said that the main goal and ambition remained to make Albania a member country of the European Union so the political parties should focus on this priority, the current crisis should not be a block of EU integration ambition. Albanian Minister of Integration Klajda Gjosha also said Saturday that the politicians here should live up to the citizens' expectations rather than stand in the way of Albania's EU integration.

She called on politicians to work on solving the political deadlock, noting that although this year's parliamentary elections were not set as a condition for integration process, they were a key criterion that could become a condition if Albania failed to hold free and fair elections.

Gjosha further said that the continuing impasse and lack of political dialogue would hold back the process of integration.

On the other hand, the head of the Albanian opposition, the Democrat Lulzim Basha, announced Saturday that the opposition will hold a massive protest on May 13 in Albania's capital.

Albania was expected to hold by-mayoral elections on May 7 in the western town of Kavaja. But since the opposition stayed out of the election process, even the majority decided to withdraw its candidate and cancel the elections.

According to Basha, the head of government Edi Rama withdrew from by-mayoral elections due to the pressure of people and the opposition.

The opposition had warned of civil disobedience and massive protests in Kavaja in order to block the by-mayoral elections.

Meanwhile, Albania will hold general elections on June 18. But, opposition parties have decided to boycott these elections. For more than two months, the opposition has also been boycotting the parliamentary works. Endit