Albanian presidential election, 2007

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Albania
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Indirect presidential elections were held in Albania on 20 June 2007,^[1] 27 June 2007,^[2] 8 July 2007,^[3] 11 July 2007,^[4] 14 July 2007^[1] and 20 July 2007.^[2]

According to the Albanian Constitution the President is elected by the Assembly. A candidate requires three-fifths of the vote in parliament and if no candidate reaches this after five votes there must be new elections to the Assembly; there also have to be early elections if there is no vote on any candidate by the third attempt of the first round of voting.^[3]

In 2002, Alfred Moisiu was elected as a consensual president and was accepted by both the majority and the opposition parties. The parties would not agree to reelect Moisiu despite his agreement to stand as a compromise candidate. Neither Bamir Topi of the right nor Fatos Nano or Edi Rama of the left had the necessary supermajority in parliament, and therefore it was considered to be very likely that early elections would have to be held after five failed attempts to elect the president.

Current prime minister and former president Sali Berisha had advocated for a president elected by direct popular suffrage, but due to lack of time, such changes could not take place before the 2007 elections.

On 12 July 2007, Rama officially called for early elections.^[4] A majority of Albanians is against early elections.^[1]

[edit] Results

In the first two attempts for the first round of voting (on 20 June and 27 June), no candidate was presented. On 5 July 2007, the government and the opposition presented their proposed candidate lists to the other group, but did not accept either list; they agreed to meet on 6 July 2007 to start another attempt on finding a consensus candidate, which failed. (The opposition had proposed Albania's military representative to NATO, Brig. Gen. Arjan Zaimi, as a compromise candidate, but the government rejected him.) They then set the third attempt of the first round of voting (the first one to actually see any candidate stand for the post) for 8 July.^[5] Topi was the official nominee of the ruling coalition, while Nano did not stand as the opposition's candidate (his own party does not support him as a candidate), but de facto as an independent.

The first round of voting on 8 July gave the following results (the opposition boycotted the vote due to the lack of a consensus candidate):^{[6] [7]}

Bamir Topi: 75 votes
Fatos Nano: 3 votes

The second round on 11 July was again boycotted by the opposition and had the following results:^[8]

Bamir Topi: 74 votes
Fatos Nano: 5 votes

While the opposition continued its boycott on 14 July in the third round, a new candidate entered the field: Neritan Ceka, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance Party. Since he and Topi got the most votes, they proceed to the fourth round.^[9] For the first time, more than the 84 members of parliament necessary for a successful election were present.

Bamir Topi: 50 votes
Neritan Ceka: 32 votes
Fatos Nano: 3 votes

In the fourth and potentially penultimate round on 20 July, 90 parliamentarians were present, including ten from the opposition. The results this time were:^[2]

Bamir Topi: 85 votes
Neritan Ceka: 5 votes

These surprising results stifled the impending early elections; Topi's election was only possible because five opposition members voted for him instead of Ceka.