U.S., EU urge jaded Albanians not to turn their backs on the elections
TIRANA, June 5 – The United States and the European Union are increasingly calling on Albanians to not lose sight of what’s important in a democratic process and cast their ballots.
The calls come as many potential voters, faced with outlandish promises and a negative campaign are starting to disassociate themselves from the democratic process and might not vote at all, some polls show. In addition, an unknown number of Albanians are looking to protest the entire political class – wich they see as corrupt and untrustworthy – by casting ballots that are invalid.
U.S., EU ambassadors: Your vote matters
Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Arvizu and EU Ambassador Ettore Sequi held a public meeting with students. Arvizu said democracy and the value of the individual vote are important.
It is “absolutely critical to knowing how to decide, how to approach your vote.And your vote is sacrosanct.Without the vote, you can’t have an election; without an election, the democratic system cannot work,” said the U.S. ambassador.
Arvizu added democracy is all about participation in the voting process; it’s about knowing what you believe and acting on it.
“The participation needs to be as broad as possible, with input from as many people as possible. And I think that as Albania continues with its democratic evolution, that’s the one element that needs more work and that, is the participatory element,” Arvizu said.
He also added that “you as citizens, you as potential voters need to have some degree of confidence that when you cast your vote, that it is counted properly. ŠYou have to understand that your vote matters, your opinion matters. Don’t let them take you and your vote for granted. That’s the only way that you’re going to be able to realize the country and the democracy that you deserve.”
Sequi also held the same line with Arvizu. He also stressed about the need that the Albanian political parties should have Albanians’ European hopes in their agenda.
He was optimistic about Albania’s future in Europe but he also said that the country should apply the same standards as the EU countries do.
Sequi said, however, that the passing of the three laws in the extraordinary parliamentary session last week is not the last step toward the integration. Elections remain an important next step.
EU integration remains a top electoral issue
Albania’s integration into the European Union remains a main issue of contest in the electoral campaign the main political forces are offering their supporters.
All political leaders repeat a pledge to take the country into the negotiations on the membership with the European Union in the next four years.
A week ago parliament convened into an extraordinary session to vote three laws that were required by Brussels as part of the package of 12 key recommendations it had made since 2010.
But officials in Brussels made it clear the approval of the laws does not automatically mean that the tiny western Balkan country will immediately get the candidate status, for which it has applied since 2009.
The forthcoming June 23 national election remains a key to the country’s further progress, EU officials note.
Eduard Kukan, a European parliamentarian, said Wednesday in an interview to an Albanian local private television station that the annual progress report will likely show that the European bureaucracy has not been pleased with the country’s fight against corruption and the reforms in the judiciary.
It is a message that is largely being ignored in the campaing pledges, however. Prime Minister Sali Berisha notes on a daily basis that his governing Democratic Party will take the country to the next step in the European integration נthe start of the negotiations – as soon as it gets a third term following the elections.
“We’ll get the [candidate] status and will launch negotiations with the European Union,” Berisha said in a recent rally, then asking rhetorically: “What about the other side?!”
The other side, the opposition led by the Socialist Party also pledges they will move the country forward in its EU path. Opposition leader Edi Rama says it is Berisha’s bad governance that has stalled the country’s EU bid.
Jaded Albanians cause concern
As the campaign drags on and the airwaves have as much negative attacks as they do constructive debate many Albanians – those that can afford to be independent voters – are increasingly switching off. According to a recent survey by an Italian company and a private television station, 49.5 percent of Albanians are following the election campaign with little interest, while 18 percent are not interested at all in the messages the political parties are conveying.
In addition, general anger toward the political class has given rise to the so-called Vote Blank movement, pushed forward by a couple of media pundits and supported on social media like Facebook by unknown donors.
The movement tells people to go to polls and vote, but to purposefully make their votes invalid to protest the country’s political class – in essence protest the fact that they don’t like any of the choices.
Visa-free travel returns to political agenda
Visa-free travel, absent from headlines since Albanians started travelling without visitor visas to much of Europe two years ago, has returned to the headlines for political reasons.
A promise by Prime Minister Sali Berisha to obtain a visa-waiver agreement with the United States has brought the issue at the forefront of the political debate. The promise is completely unrealistic for the next four years, most impendent observers agree, however Berisha says his government was and will be working to also include Albania in the U.S. visa-waiver program, as it did with European Union Schengen member countries.
Berisha insisted with his rhetoric, even after the U.S. Embassy officials said repeatedly it was highly unlikely Albania would be able to be included due to its citizens’ high visa refusal rates.
“There are rules, and it is the Congress which is in charge of establishing the rules and the administration which carries them out,” U.S. Ambassador Alexander Arvizu said. These rules mean Albania can’t negotiate over visas with the U.S. like it did with the EU.
Arvizu said there are criteria that make the country eligible for it. One of them is that the refusal rate for ordinary visas needs to be lower than 3 percent and Albania has it at 40 percent.
Currently, only 30 countries in Europe and seven in Asia use the visa-waiver program with the United States.
With the United States there is no negotiation, no status report, no special consideration, noted the ambassador in a recent television interview.
“You qualify, or you don’t,” said Arvizu.
EU concerned over asylum claims
However, as optimistic supporters of the prime minister hope to visit Las Vegas and New York without visas, an alarming call came from nearer to home – Brussels.
A report on Western Balkans showed that the asylum seekers from those countries last year increased by 44 percent. Before Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia were the problem for Brussels. But they had a significant drop of those request.
Albania and Bosnia had a significant rise נ74 percent for Albania and 51 percent for Bosnia. The main countries where they have applied were Germany, Sweden, Belgium Switzerland and Luxembourg.
That is not a good sign for Albanian authorities, which have to start working to try to prevent asylum request from their citizens going to Europe.
EU officials have warned in the past that if the numbers of asylum claims grow significantly, the visa regime might return.
