Kuvendi i Shqipërisë

**Kuvendi i Shqipërisë**
Basic data
Seat:	Parliament building, ; Tirana
Legislative period :	four years
First session:	April 21, 1921
MPs:	140
Current legislative period
Last choice:	June 25, 2017
Chair:	President of Parliament : Gramoz Ruçi ( PS ); Vice Presidents : Vasilika Hysi ( PS );
Distribution of seats:	* PS 75 seats PD 25 seats; LSI 18 seats; PDIU 3 seats; PSD 1 seats; unoccupied: 18 seats;
	Website
	www.parlament.al

Plenary Chamber of Parliament (2016)

The Albanian parliament is called Kuvendi i Shqipërisë [ kuvɛndi i ʃcipəɾisə ] ( German Assembly of Albania ) . It has 140 members. The legislative period lasts four years. Five parties have been represented since the last parliamentary elections in June 2017 . President of the Parliament is Gramoz Ruçi ( PS ). Albania has a unicameral system . The seat of parliament is located in the capital Tirana .

history

1920s and Ahmet Zogu's monarchy

In 1920 the Lushnja Congress was constituted by representatives from most of the Albanian cities and regions. Its 37 members assumed the function of a legislative national assembly without having been elected.

In February and March 1921, the first elections in the history of Albania took place. On April 21, 1921, the 78 elected MPs met in Tirana for the first time. The elections could hardly be described as democratic . Rather, large landowners and clan leaders pushed their candidates through or let themselves be chosen by their followers.

In 1924, Fan Noli's government, which had come into office through a parliamentary vote, was overthrown at gunpoint. The new ruler Ahmet Zogu influenced the upcoming elections in 1925 in his favor. The bicameral system (Chamber of Deputies and Senate), determined by a new electoral law, met for the first time on July 1, 1925.

In 1928 Parliament accepted Zogu's proposal to establish a constitutional monarchy with himself as king . During the time of the Kingdom of Albania (1928–1939) the Albanian parliament consisted of only one chamber. Italy occupied Albania from April 1939 to September 1943 .

From 1924 to 1939 a building not far from Skanderbeg Square served as parliament, which today houses the National Puppet Theater .

People's Socialist Republic of Albania

From May 24th to 28th, 1944, the 1st anti-fascist congress of national liberation (Kongresi i Parë Antifashist i Çlirimit Kombëtar) took place in Përmet . This congress of Përmet (Kongresi i Përmetit) consisted of 186 delegates from all over the country, elected the 118-person Anti-Fascist Council for National Liberation (Këshilli Antifashist Nacional-Çlirimtar) , a transitional parliament that will be held from October 20th to 23rd Berat met.

After the Second World War , a constituent assembly was elected on December 2, 1945 . The communists influenced the election in their favor and could win. According to the 1946 constitution, the parliament was called Kuvendi Popullor (People's Assembly). It didn't matter under socialist rule. All important decisions were made by the dictator Enver Hoxha and the governing bodies of the Labor Party that he controls .

Republic of Albania

On March 31, 1991, pluralistic elections took place for the first time after the end of the “enveristic” rule . In addition to the communists, who soon transformed into the Socialist Party , the Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë (or Partia Demokratike for short ) and a few other small parties stood up. The socialists won the election. Equal opportunities had not existed because the newly founded Democrats were barely organized. The voters were also intimidated and deliberately disinformed by the old propaganda media.

The first truly free elections were held in March 1992. From them the Partia Demokratike emerged as the winner. The new parliament met for the first time on April 15, 1992.

Rights and obligations

Parliament's office building on Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit , formerly the seat of the Central Committee of the Labor Party

In addition to legislating , Parliament is responsible for electing the President and the members of the Constitutional Court and deciding on war and peace. A newly formed government must gain the confidence of the parliamentary majority before it takes office.

If parliament does not succeed in electing a president in a number of ballots prescribed by the constitution , it is automatically dissolved and new elections take place. Furthermore, the parliament can be dissolved by the president if it has not been possible to elect a prime minister in several votes. The president then has to fix new elections in due time.

Suffrage and elections

All Albanian citizens over the age of 18 have the right to vote .

The current electoral law was drawn up in a rare cooperation between the two major parties (socialists and democrats) and passed by parliament with their majority in January 2009. Compared to the electoral law in force over the past twelve years, the new law favors large parties.

The 140 parliamentary seats are determined by proportional representation . The number of voters in the individual constituencies varies greatly; The constituency of Tirana, for example, has almost a million inhabitants, while the constituency of Kukës has barely 100,000. In addition to parties and individual candidates, joint lists of several parties, so-called electoral coalitions, can also stand for election, but each individual member party is listed separately on the voting slip. Simultaneous candidacies on lists in different constituencies are also allowed. Parties not represented in parliament require the signature of 10,000 supporters to stand for candidacy, individual candidates the signatures of one percent of the voters in their constituency. In order to be taken into account in the allocation of seats in a constituency, a party must win at least 2.5% of the vote and a coalition at least 4% of the votes.

Parliamentary elections have taken place eight times since the end of the dictatorship: 1992, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017. Until recently there were more or less major irregularities in the registration of voters, the casting of votes and the counting of votes. In particular, the 1996 elections were massively falsified. The OSCE and other international organizations have therefore monitored the elections every time since 1997 . Albanian civil rights groups have also been active in this regard since 2001.

Election result 2017

Due to a boycott of parliament by the opposition, numerous members of parliament resigned or changed parliamentary groups in spring 2019. Several seats subsequently remained vacant.

19th

74

1

3

43

19th 74 1 3 43

A total of 140 seats

LSI : 19th
PS : 74
PSD : 1
PDIU : 3
PD : 43

Political party	Abbreviation	Party leader	Kuvendi (MP)	Party's share of the nationwide vote in percent
Partia Socialiste e Shqipërisë	PS	Edi Rama	74	48.34
Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë	PD	Lulzim Basha	43	28.28
Lëvizja Socialiste për Integrim	LSI	Petrit Vasili	19th	14.27
Partia për Drejtësi, Integrim dhe Unitet	PDIU	Shpëtim Idrizi	3	4.8
Partia Socialdemokrate e Shqipërisë	Psd	Skënder Gjinushi	1	0.95

Factions

74

19th

9

18th

74 19th 9 9 18th

A total of 129 seats

PS : 74
non-attached: 19
Democrat parliamentary group: 9
"Democracy and Justice" group: 0
"Independent" parliamentary group: 9
Vacancy: 18

fraction	Party (s)	Number of seats	Chair
Group of the Partia Socialiste e Shqipërisë	Partia Socialiste e Shqipërisë	74	Taulant Balla
Democrat parliamentary group	Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë	9	Rudina Hajdari
"Independent" parliamentary group	Socialist Movement for Integration , Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë and the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity	9	Nimet Musaj
"Democracy and Justice" group	Socialist movement for integration , Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë	11	Edmond Stojku
Non-attached	Socialist Movement for Integration , Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë , Party for Justice, Integration and Unity and Partia Socialdemokrate e Shqipërisë	19th
vacancy		18th

(As of March 16, 2020)

Composition of parliament since 1946

Timeline of parties elected or represented in government in Kuvendi i Shqipërisë
Alignment		1940s					1950s										1960s										1970s										1980s										1990s										2000s										2010s
Alignment		6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0
Nationalist	National Conservative																																																			PBK
Conservative	National Conservative																																															PR													PR
	Pan Conservative																																																				PDK								PDK
	Pan Conservative																																																																	PKD
	Liberal Conservative																																														PD
	Liberal Conservative																																																								PDR
Liberal	National Liberalism																																																																PDI			PDIU
	Economic liberalism																																																								AD
																																																													BLD
																																															KKVLAP
	Left Liberalism																																														Omonoia	PBDNJ
Civil rights	Peasant movement																																																								PAA
Socialist	Social democratic																																															PS
																																																Psd					Psd																				Psd
																																																													PDS
																																																													LSI
	Marxist-Leninist	PK			PP

Allocation of seats in parliament since 1992

Political party	1992	1996	1997	2001	2005	2009	2013	2017
Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë	92	122	24	46	56	68	50	43
Partia Socialiste e Shqipërisë	38	10	101	73	42	65	65	74
Lëvizja Socialiste për Integrim	-	-	-	-	5	4th	16	19th
Partia Republikane Shqiptare	1	3	1	-	11	1	3	-
Partia Socialdemokrate e Shqipërisë	7th	-	9	4th	7th	-	-	1
Partia Demokracia Sociale e Shqipërisë	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	-
Partia Bashkimi për të Drejtat e Njeriut	2	3	4th	3	2	1	1	-
Partia e Ballit Kombëtar Shqiptar	-	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
Aleanca Demokratike	-	-	-	3	3	-	-	-
Partia Demokratie e Re e Shqipërisë	-	-	-	6th	4th	-	-	-
Partia Agrare dhe Ambientaliste e Shqipërisë	-	-	-	3	4th	-	-	-
Partia Demokristiane e Shqipërisë	-	-	2	-	2	-	-	-
Unioni Demokratik Liberal i Shqipërisë	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-
Partia për Drejtësi, Integrim dhe Unitet	-	-	-	-	-	1	4th	3
Partia Kristiane Demokrate e Shqipërisë	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
independent	-	-	13	2	1	-	-	-
Total number of seats	140	140	155	140	140	140	140	140

Legislatures

Parliament has had 20 legislative terms since the Republic of Albania was re-established after the Second World War. In some cases, the legislative periods are also counted from the beginning of the first freely elected parliament (in brackets).

Constituent Assembly: January 10, 1946 - March 16, 1946
I: March 25, 1946 - January 21, 1950
II: June 28, 1950 - April 14, 1954
III: July 19, 1954 - February 21, 1958
IV: June 21, 1958 - June 3, 1962
V: July 14, 1962 - March 12, 1966
VI: September 10, 1966 - May 4, 1970
VII: November 20, 1970 - June 19, 1974
VIII: October 28, 1974 - February 21, 1978
IX: December 25, 1978 - July 14, 1982
X: November 22, 1982 - January 10, 1987
XI: February 19, 1987 - November 13, 1990
XII (I): April 15, 1991 - February 4, 1992
XIII (II): April 4, 1992 - March 29, 1996
XIV (III): July 1, 1996 - May 15, 1997
XV (IV): July 23, 1997 - May 14, 2001
XVI (V): June 29, 2001 - May 20, 2005
XVII (VI): September 2, 2005 - September 2, 2009
XVIII (VII): September 7, 2009 - September 7, 2013
XIX (VIII): September 9, 2013 - September 9, 2017
XX (IX): September 9, 2017 - September 9, 2021

Commissions

Commission on Legal Issues, Public Administration and Human Rights (Komisioni për Çështjet Ligjore, Administratën Publike dhe të Drejtat e Njeriut)
Commission for European Integration (Komisioni për Integrimin Europian)
Foreign Policy Commission (Komisioni për Politikën e Jashtme)
Economic and Financial Affairs Commission (Komisioni për Ekonominë dhe Financat)
National Security Commission (Komisioni për Sigurinë Kombëtare)
Commission for Manufacturing, Trade and Environment (Komisioni për Veprimtaritë Prodhuese, Tregtinë dhe Mjedisin)
Labor, Social Affairs and Health Commission (Komisioni për Punën, Çështjet Sociale dhe Shëndetësinë)
Commission for Education and Resources for Public Information (Komisioni për Edukimin dhe Mjetet e Informimit Publik)
In addition to these standing parliamentary commissions, there are also temporary and investigative commissions.

literature

Kosta Barjaba (Ed.): Albania's democratic elections, 1991 - 1997. Analyzes, documents and data. Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-89404-237-0 .
Afrim Krasniqi: Political Parties in Albania 1920-2006. Tirana 2006.

Web links

Official website of the Kuvendi i Shqipërisë (Albanian and English)
Documentation on the history of parliament from 1920 to 2005 (Albanian) (PDF file; 17.44 MB)

Individual evidence

^ Owen Pearson: Albania in Occupation and War - From Fascism to Communism 1940-1945 . In: The Center for Albanian Studies (Ed.): Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History . Volume 2. IB Tauris, London 2005, ISBN 1-84511-014-5 , pp. 348 ff., 399 f .
^ Right to vote in Albania. In: Wahlrecht.de. Retrieved April 7, 2014 .
↑ Kronologji e Legjislaturave në Shqipëri. Parliament's website, archived from the original on May 10, 2012 ; Retrieved November 23, 2012 (Albanian).

41.325980555556 19.823138888889Coordinates: 41 ° 19 ′ 33.5 ″ N , 19 ° 49 ′ 23.3 ″ E

[pearson-1] Owen Pearson: Albania in Occupation and War - From Fascism to Communism 1940-1945 . In: The Center for Albanian Studies (Ed.): Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History . Volume 2. IB Tauris, London 2005, ISBN 1-84511-014-5 , pp. 348 ff., 399 f .

[2] Right to vote in Albania. In: Wahlrecht.de. Retrieved April 7, 2014 .

[3] Kronologji e Legjislaturave në Shqipëri. Parliament's website, archived from the original on May 10, 2012 ; Retrieved November 23, 2012 (Albanian).