Basha Declared Winner

TIRANA, June 25 – The Central Election Commission declared Lulzim Basha of the governing Democratic party as the winner of the local race in Tirana. It took three counts of the ballots to finally give Albania’s capital a new mayor. Electoral officials announced that governing party candidate Lulzim Basha won the May 8 ballot in Tirana by 93 votes more than Socialist Party leader Edi Rama. That’s even better than Basha did in the first formal result, when he won by 81 votes, and much better than he fared during the initial count, after which he lost by 10 votes. It turns out that some ballots were placed into the wrong boxes, leading to appeals by both parties. But the dispute may not be over; the opposition, which complained again, could appeal the ruling to Albania’s Electoral College. Miscast votes have been considered invalid in previous polls and the opposition complains that the decision to include them in the final tally of this election was taken only after Edi Rama initially won the race. The opposition Socialists have asked the CEC again to declare the counting process illegal. It is very unlikely the CEC will favor this, however; in which case the Socialists may make further appeals to the Electoral College. The opposition has said they will stick to a legal– rather than physical– battle and have also insisted that they do not recognize the results which bring Basha as the winner. They say that the initial race showed clearly that Rama had won. The country’s main political parties are trading accusations and the case, for the moment, has evolved into a legal battle. The Socialists accuse the governing Democrats of adding ballots to the boxes after the polls. They even said that one of Berisha’s nephews was the guardsman of the boxes. They are also boycotting parliament and warning of riots if the Electoral College, a body of judges dealing with process legitimacy, does not support their complaint (which has yet to be filed). Berisha’s Democrats say the Socialists are undermining the rule of law and are holding the country’s EU prospects hostage. Berisha has repeatedly called on them to accept the legal verdicts and join them in the reforms for the country’s integration process. The mayoral dispute is the latest twist in a lengthy political impasse between the ruling party and opposition, which dates back to the last general elections in June 2009. The Socialists, who claimed that irregularities took place during that vote as well, staged a series of parliamentary boycotts and held street protests in front of the government offices. With parliament tied up in the dispute, Albania’s EU prospects seem very far away. Europe has appealed to both parties for dialogue and the Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele has repeatedly expressed his concern about the situation and invited all parties to solve the crisis.