TIRANA, July 20 – Members of Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party head to the polling booths on Saturday to elect the party’s next leader, following a major defeat to the Socialist Party in the general elections last month.
The internal leadership election, in which incumbent leader Lulzim Basha faces challenger Eduard Islami, has been controversial from the start, with a large group of party members arguing the election should have been postponed to allow more time for the party to reflect on the defeat of June 25 and for new leaders to emerge.
Traveling around the country to meet party members, Basha and Selami presented their platform and called for unity within the party.
Basha, who has been leading the Democrats since 2013, blames the electoral loss on the ruling Socialist Party buying votes with money from the illegal marijuana cultivation and pressuring the voters through other means.
Basha said the general elections race was not a normal competition of ideas.
“Criminals within institutions together with [Prime Minister] Edi Rama implemented a political project to cover Albania with drugs. This was a political project because he aimed to cover his economic failure. It was a political project because he aimed to capture the elections with the money,” Basha said during an event as part of his leadership campaign.
Selami served as partly leader in the 1990s. He spent nearly two decades in the United States before returning to become a lawmaker again and had not been very active until he put his name forward to compete against Basha.
Selami said it was clear the race was not even as Basha was trying to keep his seat at all costs even-though he led the party to a major defeat. Selami urged Democrats to vote for him instead.
“Together we will return to power faster, finding solicitations and staying close to the people of this country. That’s the winning formula. Our best days are head,” Selami told supporters.
However, a group of critics led by Astrit Patozi, a former top DP lawmaker, have launched a parallel campaign with party members urging them to postpone or boycott the internal elections, which are seen as fake by the critics and simply aiming to continue the leadership of Basha.
The Democrats suffered the worst electoral defeat in their history in the June 25 elections, leading to calls for the incumbent leader, Basha, to quit. Instead he said he would freeze his functions and seek another term at the helm.
Patozi says that “the current Basha-Selami race for the leader of the Democratic Party is neither fair nor equal, so should it be stopped to save the Democratic Party.”
