Count-down towards what?

By Jerina Zaloshnja
The end of the election campaign is in sight. In two days time, the Albanians will be voting to revive the bodies of local autonomy. The western style campaigns of both political blocs, of the Government and the Opposition, failed to conceal the tension of the candidates, of their parties, as well as the still preferred tendency towards political confrontation. Political tension rose with minor incidents, but which signaled a confrontational trend on the rise. This spirit of confrontation first appeared in the ripping up of candidates’ posters, a new phenomenon in Albanian election campaigns. Although elections to the bodies of local government, this campaign presented these elections as political, parliamentary elections. The explanation to this is that in the capital, the Leader of the Socialist Party is also the candidate of the Left wing coalition for Mayor of Tirana and it appears that his loss not only appeals to the Democrats but also to segments within the left wing Opposition. But, first and foremost the coalition in office led by the DP and PM Berisha want this loss the most. To a certain degree, the battle for the Mayoralty of Tirana is a battle between the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister.
During more than a year and a half following the advent to office of the DP a spirit of confrontation has been predominant between the Government and the Opposition. In very few countries of the world does it happen that the day after losing its bid for power, a political force begins its fight to get back into office. Not a single sign of compromise or consensus between the government and the opposition has been seen during these last two years. There was very little hope that such a thing would occur during the campaign. But, irrespective of all of this, the count down that ahs begun, cannot be a count down to confrontation on election day or the day after. This is a time that has gone once and for all for Albania. These are the fifth lot of local government polls held in Albania, and the situation has almost always been like this; a political battle that must be won at all costs. But, unfortunately, one sides has to lose these elections and the biological rule of democracy implies that the side that loses also accepts this loss. Lets hope this will be the case in these elections. These are the fifth lot of elections for local government and it can be accepted that the country has not moved forward at the rates required. But, at the end of the day, it has moved forward. Perhaps it would have been different if the local government polls had not been conceived by the parties merely as a political battle which must be won at all costs. These elections, the fifth since the collapse of communism, will replace or confirm in office the Mayors of the municipalities and the communes of the country. However, although for the last fifteen years, the citizens of this country, through their vote have been bringing to office or bringing down local politicians, the majority of the cities of Albania resemble the cities that were under communism like two drops of water, if we don’t count the intensity with which the number of vehicles grows, the piles of urban waste and the giant buildings. For the first time it seemed that in these elections the more problematic issues of development of the cities and communities in them were to be at the centre of the programs and the campaigns of the political parties. Problems like employment, housing, other basic public services, education, the infrastructure, town planning schemes of the development of cities, the priorities of economic development, according to the potential of every city etc. This does not mean that the two political fronts have not repeated to boredom to their voters that on their victories depend integration into NATO and the EU. This has been the practice not only of the party leaders but also the candidates for local government, who are busy telling the voters that their main priorities are getting into NATO and the EU, instead of revealing projects for local communities, new schools, cleaning up the cities, creating new parks and gardens. On the one hand these elections will be a test for the level of democracy and of the functioning of the political system in Albania. In this manner they are expected to be and they should be a break away from the logic of confrontation and of victory at all costs to mark in this way, the final signal of Albania’s political transition. Let’s wait and see.