On Tuesday 2 July, European External Action Service spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told EUROPE that the elections held on 30 June in Albania in a context of political division had been “generally peaceful and well administered”.
Turnout in the elections, boycotted by the opposition, is low - 21% - and in 31 of the 61 municipalities there was only one candidate.
“The newly elected local bodies must now be in a position to work according to their constitutional competencies, to the benefit of the country’s citizens”, the spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that she had taken note of all the preliminary remarks made by the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission.
Ms Kocijancic also called, once again, for dialogue between political parties. “Both government and opposition have to demonstrate political maturity and urgently engage in constructive dialogue to overcome the current political situation”, she said. According to the spokeswoman, all Albanian institutions and political leaders should concentrate their efforts on the continued implementation of reform process, “including by relaunching the previously initiated reform of the electoral legislation to address ODIHR recommendations”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)