TIRANA, June 19 – Eligible voters across Albania head to polling stations Sunday to select their local government leaders – 61 new mayors and the members of the local municipal councils.
The June 21 elections are being primarily contested between the two coalitions led by Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama and outgoing Tirana Mayor Lulzim Basha of the main opposition Democratic Party, who played the deciding factor in selecting local candidates and have led the two campaigns, traveling across Albania to support their candidates.
Albania is a highly-centralized state and local governments have limited powers, which include but are not limited to urban planning and issuing construction permits as well as operating water supply systems and trash collection.
The election comes after weeks of campaigning that has been less aggressive than previous elections, but which has been accompanied by some harsh rhetoric and accusations of improper conduct.
The municipalities with the largest population, those in the Tirana-Durres metropolitan area as well as those centered around the cities of Shkodra, Elbasan, Vlora and Korça have drawn the most attention, but strong races and incidents have registered across Albania, from Konispol near the Greek border to Kukes, bordering Kosovo.
If opinion polls are to be believed, the Socialist-led coalition is ahead in the majority of municipalities across the country, but not in Shkodra, where the Democrats are leading. Durres is too close to call, several opinion polls showed.
Political analysts have warned that opinion polls should be taken with a grain of salt due to having proved not entirely reliable in the past.
- Key races
Due to the fact that about one in three Albanian voters now lives within the municipality of Tirana, the race in the capital has been the most watched. The new mayor of Tirana will now rule a very large area, including many of the city’s suburbs and other towns and villages which once had self-government.
Erion Veliaj, 35, of the governing Socialists is competing with Halim Kosova, 60, of the main opposition Democratic Party for the top job.
They are facing challenges from three other candidates, including an independent, Gjergj Bojaxhi, who opinion polls show could make a strong showing.
Veliaj, a former Welfare Minister and well-known former civil society activist with strong ties to the prime minister, is ahead in several opinion polls published so far.
Kosova, one of the country’s best known obstetricians and a man respected for his civilized discourse in a country where aggressive language dominates politics, served shortly as Health Minister but has spent most of his career as a maternity hospital doctor and manager.
Both candidates are largely drawing support from voters supporting their respective political coalitions, promising more jobs and better infrastructure in the case of leftist Veliaj and tax cuts and better management in the case of the center-right candidate, Kosova.
Beating the high registration wall required for independent candidates to run by submitting nearly 14,ooo signatures, Bojaxhi is an Albanian American business executive running third in the polls. Bojaxhi is hoping to draw support from Albanians who are fed up with the political class and mismanagement of the capital, a message that resonates with more than 10 percent of voters, according to opinion polls.
Albania’s second largest municipality, Durres, will see a race between the Democrats’ Grida Duma, 37, a university professor who saw a quick rise in the party thanks to her media-savvy approach to politics, and incumbent Socialist Vangjush Dako, 49, who is seeking his third term as Durres mayor. They are running head to head in the opinion polls.
Shkodra is unique in that it has two female candidates – Voltana Ademi, a university professor, and Keti Bazhdari, a business owner. The Democrats’ Ademi is more likely to win, opinion polls show.
- Hundreds of observers on hand
An army of local and international observers will be present on voting day, including OSCE/ODIHR’s 250 short-term observers.
They will evaluate the elections for their compliance with international obligations and standards for democratic elections.
Observers are also expecting one of the lowest turnout ever in these elections. Only 15 percent of Albanians trust their political class, polls show.
International representatives, including those from the European Union and the United States, have urged Albanians to take part in the electoral process.
EU Ambassador Romana Vlahutin said that the local elections are important because they determine the quality of everyone’s life.
The ambassador also asked voters not to give in to vote buying and urged Albanian to react when they see irregularities in the voting process.
- First election under new administrative division
The elections are more important than in the past because they are the first to be conducted after the administrative reform that drastically cut the number of municipalities in Albania from 384 to 61 by merging smaller rural municipalities with nearby larger urban ones.
The Socialists made the reform a priority after coming to power in the national elections of 2013. They said it was a cost-cutting move that would lead to better governance.
The opposition Democrats have been against the reform and did not take part in its drafting. They have also accused the government of drawing up municipal borders to give an electoral advantage to Socialists.
