Albanian parliament failed in its third attempt to elect a new president Saturday night, keeping open the prospects of early general elections in the tiny western Balkan country.
The opposition bloc led by Tirana mayor Edi Rama continued boycotting the vote in protest over the ruling Democrats' decision not to support a consensus candidate proposed by the opposition.
Bamir Topi, deputy leader of the governing Democratic Party-led coalition of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, won 50 votes. He did better in the previous two rounds, winning 75 and 74 votes respectively.
Neritan Ceka, a new comer into the ring from the opposition coalition Democratic Alliance Party, received 32 votes, while the former prime minister and opposition Socialist Party leader Fatos Nano got only three votes.
Topi and Ceka will play off in the next two rounds for the post of the country's president, because they won the most votes in the first three rounds.
Albanian president is chosen by a three-fifths majority in the parliament, or 84 of the legislature's 140 seats, where the governing coalition hold 80 seats, four votes short of the total needed to win.
If the parliament fails to select a president in five rounds of voting, the chamber will be dissolved and the country will go to early general elections within 60 days, the country's constitution requires.
Opposition leader Rama has called for early elections, saying that is the only way solve the political in Albania.
"I am ready for early elections," Edi Rama, chairman of the Socialist Party, told the party's grassroots meeting in the country 's northern city Shkoder on Wednesday.
He also called on opposition parties to unite for early elections, saying that political leaders who have no sense of cooperation should back off from political stage.
But a survey shows that a majority of Albanians are against early elections that might be forced onto them if the current political deadlock over the selection of a new head of state is not broken.
The survey, conducted by an Albanian research company, found that 61 percent of Albanians thought that early elections will have a negative impact on Albania, which is in the process of bidding to join the EU and NATO, while 22 percent said early elections will be positive for their country.
Albanian President Alfred Moisiu's five-year term will expire on July 24.
Source: Xinhua
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