You too, Mr. Stonestreet? But we trusted you!

The head of ODIHR mission in Tirana during the May 8 local elections made some off-the-wall statements when asked by the reporters on the standards of the elections.

Mr. Stonestreet arrived again in Albania, but this time he was different and didn’t reflect the confidence he used to have during the May 8 elections. He looked kind of meek and confused, facts that were illustrated in his comments about the OSCE-ODIHR May 8 elections report.

When asked by the Top-Channel  special reporter, M.Veliu, on why the ODIHR report did not specify whether the elections met the standards for free and fair elections or not, a confused Mr. Stonestreet dodged the bullet and didn’t even mention the word “standards”. He said that “most important is that we pointed out the problems and gave our recommendations” – a very evasive answer - considering that the report for the elections in Macedonia began with the sentence “the elections met the standards for fair and free elections”. Why is Albania different Mr. Stonestreeet? We know why! But, first of all, do not say, ever, that you are an independent organization; you take orders and directives from governments before you draft your report. And here is the answer why, just to make you realize that we are smart enough to catch the game.

ODIHR mission and you personally were trapped between two pressuring sides: if you mentioned that the elections did not meet the standards, then the international community would admit that the Albanian government is authoritarian and had to go. The process of integration, now dragging, would stop altogether, because as the European officials had stated, these elections would serve as the yardstick of Albania’s EU integration. But the main reason why you didn’t mention the standards is that some governments do not want Berisha to go, for reasons that the Albanians are learning on daily basis.

On the other hand, ODIHR could never say that the elections met the standards, because the process in Tirana proved the opposite. So they met halfway by avoiding to mention the word "standards".

Then Mr. Stonestreet said something that, I am sure, froze everybody in Albania and beyond. Like a "real populist" he said that “the elections are for the people, not for political parties. Make elections for the people not political battles”.

What Mr. Stonestreet meant by that is blurry as a winter snowy day. A gentleman, born and raised in the United States, knows very well that the contract between the people and political parties representing them in the elections is of paramount importance, because the will of peope is expressed that way.

A.Kola