Albania’s election and polls

TIRANA, July 13 – Albania held this year’s parliamentary election amidst increasing international monitoring and ‘pressure’ to hold them free and fair but also noting considerable attention from the worlds polling companies.
There were three polling companies in Albania – Zogby International, Gani Bobi and IRP Marketing – which also held exit polls but were often rebuked and not accepted by the political parties.
But on the other side their work showed that the country had passed into a new democratic stage.
John Zogby says the successful running of election polls in Albania shows that the country has entered a new era for opinion research.
As founder and president of Zogby International, he said the very fact his firm was able to conduct an accurate exit poll during the vote on 28 June said a lot about the state of democracy and readiness for reform in Albania, where past elections have been criticized by observers.
“You’ve had tremendous change in a country like Albania in the sense that there is a freer market, there is a freer government and that breeds an atmosphere where people feel free to talk,” he said. “It also means someone coming ’round with a clipboard asking you lots of questions is not necessarily a bad thing.”
Sam Rodgers, who managed the Albanian polling project at Zogby International, said there are likely to be many more organizations conducting polls the next time an election is held in the country.
Before and during World War II Albania was dominated first by Mussolini’s Italy and then by Hitler’s Germany. After the war Albania was allied with the Soviet Union and then with China. For more than four decades Enver Hoxha ruled Albania with an iron fist.
The two main parties vying for a majority are the Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Sali Berisha, and the Socialist Party, led by Edi Rama.
Yes, it’s true that Albania is still struggling to overcome a culture of corruption and lawlessness following more than four decades of brutal dictatorship. During the election, both candidates vowed to bring Albania into the E.U. and to improve economic prospects; to lead the country into the European Union.
All Albanian elections since the fall of communism ushered in 1990 have been contested, multi-party elections.
The last parliamentary election was marked by an atmosphere of deep mutual distrust between political parties.
So, despite a recent history of distrust and its past dictatorship, voters in Albania were willing to talk honestly about their ballots face-to-face with an independent polling company. Albanians have come a long way. Expressing their opinions appears to be liberating, and it’s a sign that democracy, as messy as it may be, is taking hold in Albania.