Thousands of people marched Saturday in capital Tirana, in a protest called by Democratic Party led opposition forces, calling for a caretaker government to send Albania toward upcoming general elections.
“Today we take the decision to stop once and for all the masquerade of election robbery. We will either hold free elections, or there will be no elections,” Democratic Party leader, Lulzim Basha warned. “There will be no middle way. There is no other way!”
“I will stay here at the square, we invite you all to stay together for the free and fair elections that will come only by driving out the government of crime,” he said adding that their request is: “A caretaker government to guarantee free and fair elections. That is my decision!”
Basha said the opposition will not accept elections with what he called criminal standards.
One of the main requests of the opposition is the electronic voting system to be implemented in the upcoming elections. With the elections scheduled just months later, on June 18, the government insists there is no time for the system to be implemented.
Free and fair elections are EU’s main condition for the Albanian government to start the accession negotiations.
The small Balkan county, a NATO member since 2009, has been granted the candidate status to join the European Union.
Lulzim Basha said the Socialist Party government has failed to keep its promises of creating 300 000 new jobs and free health care.
No official data on the number of protesters was made public, with opposition claiming that there were hundreds of thousands in the square./tvklan.al
