CEC: Once elections are announced, we make budget planning

Although undisputed political parties have declared they want extraordinary elections, next week the president is expected to start consultations with political parties.

Only after the decision is made for the country to go to the polls, one of the procedures to be followed is for the Central Election Commission to split financial means to organise them.

So far, the Central Election Commission has not made budget planning that will be needed to organise extraordinary elections, but it will do so when elections are announced.

The year 2019 is not an election year and in this way the means for organising elections are not meant to be envisioned, but that the Ministry of Finance owns a fund that it can use to that end.

Based on Central Election Commission data, the recent parliamentary elections held in 2017 have cost 4m euros.

CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi, through a written reply, has told him they start with intensive election preparations only after they are announced.

In this direction he says that since elections have not been announced, they have not even made any budget planning.

The Central Election Commission starts with intensive preparations of an election process only after it is announced, and in that direction we have not yet made any budget planning”, it says.

He says that if there are elections, the CEC, like other times, will apply budgetary in Government for financial means.

“Viti 2019 is not an election year, which means there are no scheduled means for elections in this year's Budget Law. If there will be extraordinary elections, even relying on past practices, the CEC makes budgetary demands on Government for financial means for holding elections”, he says.

Finance Minister Bedri Hamza, at the government's recent meeting in the resignation, has indicated that at the ministry leading him, there is a fund they can use for the needs of the CEC to organise elections.

When we are on the issue of going to the polls, this has not been an election year, within the Central Election Commission there is no funding for organising the elections. We as the finance minister have been careful in this direction and it is a fund within the MF, where the law authorises the finance minister that these means in case of need can be carried to another budgetary organisation”, he has indicated.

Hamza has shown that this fund can only be used when elections are announced.

This transfer of funds has to happen for the election proclamation to happen, it takes days for elections to occur. Second, the Central Election Commission needs to come at a specified request for the needs, which are also for the funds that are and to reason on their request. On the basis of the rational request from the budgetary organisation, then it opens up to the minister of finance to make the transfer”, he said.

As far as opposition parties call for the country to go to extraordinary elections, political analyst Imer Mushkolaj says political parties can do so by breaking up the Assembly.

He says he does not see such a will of political parties, despite all political parties having claimed elections in public statements.

“As far as the dissolution of the Parliament is concerned we should be based on public statements telling political parties, all are telling us they are interested in the election. If that's why they're not breaking up the Parliament, nobody stops them from meeting tomorrow, call the House session, and break up the House. That way, it would impose on President Thaci's fingernails to just set the date of the elections, so they would not have to host President Thaci, respectively, consultations with President Thaci's political parties to dismantle the Parliament. I do not see the will of all political parties exists to dismantle the Assembly and to go to early elections, despite their public statements”, he says.

Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's resignation has come after the invitation he received from the Special Court, where he was invited as a suspect, but the Haradinaj government is not the only one who does not keep the full mandate, since the government led by Isa Mustafa had also collapsed by motion.