Albania, elections and its prospects

TIRANA, July 9 – The June 28 parliamentary elections were seen as a test of Albania’s political maturity and democracy and were considered as decisive for its further move towards integration into the European Union.
Crucial observers have been and still are talking about standards that had never been fulfilled in the previous six elections during the post-communist period since 1990.
Deciding if the country has or has not reached those standards will ultimately be in the hands of the international monitors who sent some 500 people to check the preparations, the election and the post-election processes in the country.
The first report stated improvement had been made but “family voting” continues to be a major problem. The identification inking process and other technical details were also of concern.
Whether the country has fulfilled the standards or not will be decided eight weeks after the end of the counting process when the OSCE/ODIHR will present its report.
But what do Albanians feel and think of the standards? This journalist does not pretend to claim he knows all the reactions but does have his views.
Albania made a good start with the constitutional amendments to change the voting system from a partial majority into a regional proportional system. That was a precondition set by the OSCE/ODIHR taking into consideration previous experiences.
The new system was harshly opposed by the smaller political parties that were threatened with being sidelined from the new parliament. They were right. But one may also say, is it right that a small political party decides the country’s fate?
The other election preparations went well.
The electoral campaign was significant; morally, politically and financially.
People heard Berisha and the Socialist leader Edi Rama associate the campaign with their personalities, their models of management of the country and the capital, Tirana.
People witnessed huge amounts of money thrown into advertisement, placards, platforms, busses, and payment to supporters, as well as the use of big billboards, pamphlets distributed door to door or by air, and so many other items. None can really say how much was spent. No one will actually ask the political parties to make transparent the source of funding. No one is going to be punished for using either public money or illegal funding to sponsor political activities.
None can really say if it had any impact on the elections.
Before and during the campaign three people were killed. One was a Socialist lawmaker,
another a Democratic Party militant and the third a Christian Democratic regional leader. Police and prosecutors have not yet identified those responsible and the reasons for the crimes. One can only hypothesize if the killings were linked or politically motivated.
The campaign and coalition afterwards also suggested that the parties should really think next time to prepare political platforms, concrete and clear ones, to be shown to the electorate.
Election day proved one important point – that ordinary Albanians knew what was important and did their duty to vote, and to do so peaceably. Not a single, major untoward incident during election day, only a few minor ones. Albanians calmly and in larger numbers, about 155,000 more than four years ago, cast their ballots all around the country.
Next came the waiting for the political parties; it was time to count what Albanians had decided. Every day since then one has heard political leaders saying loudly they were protecting the voters’ ballots; they respect the people’s verdict and so forth.
In fact, the actions, positioning and statements made and are still happening during the counting process speak to the contrary.
Many games and activities have taken place between the two political parties, often pushing aside the smaller ones. Many claims and counter claims. Many accusations of vote grabbing, stealing and other irregular procedures culminating in the tit-for-tat exchange of verbal fights at the Central Elections Commission.
The result of all this will be clearly seen in the ODIHR report, likely resulting in harsh words against such an ‘abuse’ of the peoples’ political will.
So did Albania fulfill the standards? With the counting process one could hardly say yes.
Hopefully Europe will not judge Albania’s acceptance into the visa-free regime next year based solely on that calculation. Our hope is that they will see Albanians as they were on June 28; peaceful, democratic and thoughtful. They really want to be considered like all the other citizens on this continent, equal.
Elections will still have more affect in the political arena.
Berisha is still trying to get one more seat for a total of 71, thus having sufficient numbers to create the government on his own, without having the leader of the small break-away Socialist coalition leader, Meta, impose a list of requests.
Elections will also decide whether Meta’s decision on a coalition with Berisha was the right one in the Albanian environment or is he going to suffer fewer supporters in future elections.
Soon opposition Socialists, after the conclusion of the vote counting, will have to review themselves: what went wrong with their campaign, leadership and the like; what
should they do in the future; their response should Meta return to the fold, and; most importantly, should Edi Rama resign from the leadership post, or should he be re-nominated.
The election showed that real democracy will take a long time to fully reach Albania. A week later Bulgaria, allegedly the most corrupt country in the European Union, held elections after the block had blocked much of the funding to the eastern European country for not fulfilling many standards. But less than a day later everyone knew who was the winner and none of the political parties had any claim or made any threats of not recognizing the results, or going to street protests like they did in Albania.