Albanian political parties will complete electoral reform in time forlocal government polls, president says

In a public letter sent to the political groupings, Moisiu said no concrete steps have been taken to correct mistakes noted in last year's general elections.

Photo: Albanian political parties will complete electoral reform in time forlocal government polls, president says

The tiny Balkan country is making efforts to obtain membership in NATO and the European Union.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international organizations have urged the country's legislative body to make electoral reform as a priority, the AP reports.

Following the president's initiative in December, a month later a special parliamentary commission was created to improve the electoral process over a three-month period. But it has not functioned at all since then.

Albania's parliamentary elections in 2005, won by a coalition led by Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democratic Party, complied only partially with international standards, according to a report from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which led the main international monitoring mission, the AP reports.

Problems include failure to train lower-level voting officials, who have sometimes given priority to their party's interests rather than respecting the law, and the procedures for drawing up the list of voters.

Albania is to hold local government elections later this year or early next year.