Former interior minister and moderate Democratic Party figure elected as non-consensual president after talks between ruling coalition and opposition fail.
TIRANA TIMES
Albania’s parliament has elected Bujar Nishani as the country’s new president. The former interior minister became president solely with the votes of the governing Democratic Party-led coalition of Prime Minister Sali Berisha. The opposition participated in parliament but did not vote, rejecting the process as a step backward for Albania’s EU integration because the new president was not a consensual candidate representing all Albanians.
The election happened in the fourth round of voting after some last-minute drama. Despite the fact that Nishani was not a consensual candidate, his election was entirely constitutional, analysts note.
Nishani, 45, was Albania’s interior minister at the time of the election. He is widely seen as a moderate figure in the Democratic Party and his name was put forward after the coalition’s previous candidate, Artan Hoxha, pulled out of the race at the last minute for unclear reasons.
Nishani received 73 votes in favor, one against, two invalid ballots. The opposition Socialist Party lawmakers were present but did not take part in the vote. Their leader Edi Rama saidconsidered Nishani’s unilateral nomination from the Democrats as a harsh blow on the country’s road toward integration into the European Union.
In the fourth round the president needs at least 71 votes of the 140-seat parliament to be elected. On previous rounds that number is 84. Both Nishani and Hoxha were presented by the government without the support of the opposition after three previous rounds failed to come up with a candidate acceptable to all.
Nishani said that he had already handed over his resignation from the post of the minister just before the voting at the parliament started. That also means that Berisha has to think of a replacement for him.
A wider government reshuffle could come as a result of the replacement, analysts note.
What’s next?
What remains to be seen is how Mr. Nishani’s presidential administration will handle working with the prime minister who has pushed hard for the past 20 years to seize as much as much power as he can from institutions he doesn’t control directly, analysts note.
President-elect Nishani will soon be Albania’s head of state. As a minister, to a certain extent, he has had the support of the public and the opposition. Now, Mr. Nishani will have to have courage to properly serve as head of state and whether he will resist the prime minister’s wish to meddle in the affairs of the new presidency, independent analysts note.
“Naturally I would have liked to have gotten the opposition votes too, but the opposition has used its rights and sovereignty,” Nishani said after the election. “What’s important to me now is tied to the fact that I offer the opposition full respect just the same as with all the institutions and important actors of political life in Albania.”
Last-minute proposal
After Hoxha’s withdrawal, Astrit Patozi, head of the Democrats’ parliamentary group, told the media Nishani was nominated for a vote that would take place just a few hours later.
Berisha insistently called on the Socialists to present their candidates, which they feared to do as they did not have the numbers in Parliament.
The presidential election process is considered as a test along Albania’s road toward integration into the European Union.
Tirana, which expects to get a positive answer to the candidate status after two previous failures, has to comply with a set of 12 key priorities in the integration process, where the political consensus on major issues is very important.
Western Ambassadors, especially those from the U.S. and the EU, have been in daily meetings with Albanian political leaders trying to impose the idea of a consensual president.
In a clear sign of criticism, the U.S. Ambassador to Tirana Alexander Arvizu did not take part at the parliament voting, as he had done in the three previous failed rounds.
President Bamir Topi’s five-year term expires July 24. He was not running for a second term.
Who is Albania’s sixth president?
Bujar Nishani became Albania’s 6th post-communist president. A leading member of the ruling Democratic Party, Nishani was born in Durres in central Albania in 1966. He is widely seen as a central Albania candidate
At the time of the vote, Nishani was the interior minister, but he has also served as justice and interior minister in previous governments.
He started his career as a military man and later became a lawyer, graduating from the Tirana Military University as communism fell and from the University of Tirana Law Faculty. He followed post-university studies in the United States in the mid 1990s. He also holds a master’s degree in European studies.
Nishani is married and has two children.
Opposition not happy
Main opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama criticized Nishani’s candidacy, saying it was a harsh blow on the country’s road toward integration into the European Union.
“It is unbelievable that a minister turns into a president … at this historic delicate moment,” said Rama. “How could they pass on to a candidate who totally represents the Democratic Party?”
Tirana has applied for EU candidate status. It has been turned down twice by Brussels, but hopes for a positive response this autumn.
The Albanian parliament previously could not elect a new president without agreeing on a candidate with the opposition. In this round, however, only a simple majority was needed.
Late evening Sunday talks between the two main opposing political groupings failed to reach any agreement.
Albania’s president has largely ceremonial powers but he also nominates prosecutor general, head of secret intelligence police and judges and prosecutors.
Government and opposition leaders have traded accusations of sabotage throughout the election process, which began last week. Each has accused the other of harming the country’s EU membership bid, which Brussels will review again in October.
The next day, Rama said that the country woke up with a “political party notary public,” the phrase he had long used to tell opponents and Albanians they were looking for a non-party president, or one that would be elected with the consensus from all the political sides.
Nishani replaces Bamir Topi, a former ally of Berisha who fell out with the prime minister and plans to challenge him with a new party when his term as president ends in late July.
Albania has been embroiled in a political crisis for three years, with the opposition accusing the ruling Democrats of electoral fraud and corruption in the 2009 national elections.
A series of failures
But it is also important to point out that the election of the new president also showed the Socialist opposition’s inability to provide political leadership – primarily with constitutional changes done with its consent in 2007 – and reflected now with its inability to force the election of a president that represents all Albanians.
And over all, the entire process of selecting a candidates shows the almost primitive level of how politics work in this country – leaving aside any notion of democracy, analysts note. The presidency as an institution based on the constitution. It is not a government department, but this time the Albanian politicians, and we are speaking here primarily about the prime minister, who brought to the table candidates through which he could control, weaken or neutralize the institution of the presidency
Meta and Nano as actors in election
Ilir Meta and Fatos Nano are two former Socialist Party leaders and former prime ministers who played a part in the election. Nano failed to get an official candidacy going because he lacked general support among Socialists, and Meta played a key role by supporting Nishani with the votes of his Socialist Movement for Integration Party, which is an ally of the center-right Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
A key role in this entire process appears to have been played by Socialist Movement for Integration head Ilir Meta. Only a few months after his corruption-related court case was dismissed as key evidence, a hidden camera video, was deemed as not proof, Mr. Meta now appears to be the man of dialogue and of the future, something many independent analysts see as unfortunate for the future of Albania. Mr. Meta did not fulfill his commitment to have a consensual candidate, in a sense humiliating for Rama, but also hurting the hopes of Albanians who wanted to see all parties work together in order to have a head of state that is that is a dignified statesman accepted by wall.
It is not clear what Mr. Meta got in return for electing a president without the consent of the opposition, but there was clearly something in it for him and his party. And he could return to becoming an important member of the government following the reshuffle needed to fill the post of former Interior Minister Nishani.
Nano has been wanting to become president for a while, but few are taking him seriously. With the fall of his government in 2005 he left the post of the premier but also that of the political party leader for the Socialists, which was taken by Rama. He did not claim to regain that post, until this week.
Nano tried to push hard for Rama and the Socialists to nominate him for the post. He failed. But his past haunts him. He left because of the lack of fight against and the widespread corruption. He has been living in Vienna, Austria much of time, in essence abandoning the country.
