With lack of preparation and engagement, legitimacy of local elections is in jeopardy before they even start.
By Andi Balla
It’s safe to say there hasn’t been a lot of constructive politics in Albania in the past two years. And as the country heads to local elections on May 8, few seem to be interested in platforms and ideas on how to improve the country’s municipalities. It continues to be all about the politics.
The biggest worry is that the opposition appears to have entered these elections halfhearted. It dragged its feet up to the last moment to sign up to participate, and now it is raising concerns at every corner, particularly when it comes to voters’ lists. As this newspaper goes to press, the opposition hasn’t even officially declared a candidate for Tirana mayor yet, even through its leader, Edi Rama, is widely expected to run again for the post he currently holds.
The opposition’s tactics have been part of the same trend it has followed in the past two years – refusing to participate as much as possible in order to protest what it says was the rigging of the last general elections. It’s a tactic that could seriously hurt the local elections but help the opposition’s plan to keep the country’s politics frozen until the government yields to calls for an early general election.
For its part, the government is probably more interested that the elections run well rather than their outcome. In post-communist Albania, local elections have often served as a peace meal for the party that loses the general elections. So it is not unusual for whoever is in the opposition nationwide to hold the majority of the country’s municipalities, though the key factor is winning the races in a few key major cities like Tirana, Durres, Vlora, Korca and Shkodra.
Of course, Tirana is the most important race in these local elections due to the capital’s size and importance.
Politically, Socialist leader Rama’s choice to run again in Tirana for a fourth term makes sense, in terms of placing the incumbent back in the race as the strongest horse. But it could also prove to be a mistake. First, he could lose, suffering a huge blow to his personal political capital (no doubt also sparking opposition protests of electoral fraud.) Second, he has been there a long time, three terms, and since ambitions are national, another Socialist candidate could probably better serve Tirana in the next four years.
The Democrats’ man in the race, Lulzim Basha, comes with his own experience, baggage and problems, having served in several ministerial posts, but in choosing him for the Tirana race, the Democrats appear to give more indication that Basha will be pushed as the likely successor at the helm of the party when Prime Minister Sali Berisha leaves politics.
Going back to the issue of a lack of ideas on how to improve things for the lives of everyday people living in Albania’s cities and communes, there is little more than a month left in the campaign, and most of what the voters have been served so far is political bickering rather than true electoral platforms.
While the aftermath of the general elections of 2009 was terrible for Albania in terms placing the country in a political deadlock and virtually freezing its European integration dreams, at least the campaign itself was well-fought, there were ideas for the future and debate was somewhat constructive.
Two years later, as the country heads to local elections, the political climate resembles two armies that have been sitting in trenches for two years. They and the people they are supposed to serve are tired. There is no energy to move out of the trenches, so all they can do is yell at each other across the field.
Doing politics like that is planning to fail.
