Local Elections and Political Instability in Albania
Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 4:00 am
Witnesses
Jonathan Stonestreet
Head of the Election Observation Mission to Albania
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Robert Benjamin
Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
Januzs Mugajski
Director, New European Democracies and Lavrentis Lavrentaiadis Cahri in Southeast European Studies,
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Mark Milosch and Bob Hand addressed the Albania's progress as a democracy and the implications of its upcoming local elections. They highlighted the polarization of Albania's political system and the little respect that exists for the electoral system, as seen by the violence that broke out during Albania's parliamentary elections earlier that year. Panelists - Jonathan Stonestreet, Robert Benjamin, and Januzs Mugajski - discussed Albania's long recovery from the Yugoslav conflicts and its status as a NATO ally. They emphasized the importance of political stability in Albania for its successful accession into the European Union and general European integration.
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