TIRANA, March 7 – Albania’s ruling Socialist Party won five out of six mayoral by-elections on Sunday, with a deeply divided opposition losing everywhere except in its stronghold of Shkoder, which was won by the candidate of the House of Freedom faction, part of a trend of humiliating defeat for the Democratic Party faction led by Lulzim Basha, which slipped into third place overall in the elections.
The Socialists took Durres, Vore, Rrogozhine, Lushnje and Diber.
As public opinion polls had predicted, Sali Berisha’s House of Freedom candidates secured significantly more votes than the candidates of the Democratic Party faction led by Basha everywhere except in Rrogozhine, indicating which faction has more support among DP voters.
In Shkoder, Bardh Spahia of the House of Freedom coalition will be the next mayor, making it the only large city in Albania managed by the opposition. Shkoder, one of the most persecuted cities under the communist regime, has never voted left of center for its mayors since the fall of communism.
House of Freedom is the coalition of the Sali Berisha-led faction of the Democratic Party working with the Socialist Movement for Integration and the small Christian Democratic Party.
Vore was the municipality where the official result was announced first because electronic voting took place. SP candidate Blerim Shera secured 69.9 percent of the vote, compared to 24.3 percent received by Lulzim Vrana of Freedom House and 6.29 percent for Democratic candidate Ymer Marku.
A combination of factors, including resignations, decriminalization law filters and the death of a sitting mayor had left the seats empty, necessitating by-elections. Mayors elected in March will only serve for a year, as normal local elections are scheduled to take place in June 2023.
Calls grow for Basha to resign
The by-elections were also a test for factions of the deeply divided opposition. The two factions of the Democratic Party – which ran separate candidates – have been given an answer which one has more electoral support, with the Berisha faction clearly outvoting Basha.
Asked whether he would now resign, Basha told the media he had not lost the elections as the low turnout showed opposition voters had not expressed themselves, but he faced fury and calls for resignations from MPs that had until now been loyal to him at a party meeting that ran late into the night on Monday.
A divided opposition
Two groups within Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party are vying for control. Delegates representing a large portion of the Democratic Party convened in an assembly Dec. 11, voting to sack the party’s incumbent leadership and approving changes to the party’s constitution. The delegates represented supporters of the former Prime Minister Berisha and others who say they want change in Albania’s main opposition party, following a string of electoral and political defeats.
Incumbent Chairman Basha and his supporters say the Dec. 11 assembly was illegal and that his mandate has three more years to go. They held a rival assembly on Dec. 18. They purged all critics from key posts.
Election loss and Berisha designation
DP has seen months of internal turmoil following the loss of the April 25, 2021 general elections for an unprecedented third time.
Moreover, the U.S. State Department in May publicly designated Berisha as an official banned from entering the United States due to involvement in “high-level corruption.” Under pressure from U.S. officials, Basha announced in September that Berisha would be expelled from the DP parliamentary group.
The decision led to Berisha launching a comeback movement within the ranks of the Democrats against Basha, but Berisha has been unable to legally dislodge the incumbent from the party’s office. An attempt to do so by force turned into ugly scenes of violence earlier this year.
