Albania welcomes report on June elections

Albania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday welcomed the final election observation reports by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) regarding its June 23 elections. The international team of observers, headed by Costance Berryman Mc Cormack, said Albania's elections were competitive with active citizen participation throughout the campaign and genuine respect for fundamental freedoms. It added the electoral code was extensively amended in July 2012, which improved the electoral framework overall. These changes addressed a number of previous recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Council of Europe's Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission). The report underlined the technical preparations for the elections were adequate, despite some noted shortcomings, in particular in not meeting a number of legal deadlines. Albania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its readiness to fully implement the recommendation of this report, as the standard set during these elections.