Don’t trust me!

By Jerina Zaloshnja
One of the possible scenarios that Tirana Times made public in predicting the outcome of the local elections was that both the Government and the Opposition would claim their own victory. This can happen in local government elections and not only in Albania. Having said this however, the concentration of the electoral battle in the capital by the two contending parties, and in particular, due to the fact that the Opposition candidate was simultaneously leader of the Opposition, did make the scenario of both the Government and the Opposition reading the results as a victory, slightly more difficult. This fact, along with the still unconsolidated positions of the Socialist Party Leader within his own party made it difficult for both sides to claim victory even if they had scored equal results over the rest of the country. In this case too, victory would lie with the side that won in Tirana.
However, even though it has lost the battle not only in Tirana, but also in almost all the major cities, Durr쳬 Elbasan, Vlora Lushnja, Fier, Kor衬 Gjirokastra, Lezha, the Government claims that it has won a plebiscitary victory on the grounds of the argument that it won in most of the rural zones. On the other hand, for its own reasons, the Opposition coalition maintains it has won the elections.
For the public there is no doubt, this debate is superfluous to comprehend who has won local government elections. However, the public is interested in how each side reads the results. The Governance of the country ad the future of this government depends directly on how the Government and the Opposition read the process and the results.
First of all, not just the informed public, but even broader than that, the proclamation of this electoral process as the best since the collapse of the communist system in Albania, raised, substantially, disbelief in the government. The way in which these elections went in Albania is still a long way off how elections are run in the countries of the European Union, and perhaps even a long way off how they are run in the Balkans too, for example, in Serbia. Instead of the Government or others reading the electoral process as being the best to date, what it should be doing, in all urgency, is a new electoral reform, preparing a national register of the electorate and identification cards, a process which for eight years on end, the socialist government did not find the will to realize.
Secondly, reading the Government’s loss of Tirana and the main cities of the country as a victory is an appeal of the Government itself not to belief in it, in terms of the membership and the other supporters of the Democratic Party and its allies in the Government. The Government may be shocked by its loss in these elections, but in the meantime there are others who are not. The socialist government of former PM Nano, particularly during the last two years it was in office, was fully convinced that everything in the country was coming along fine. But this was not the case for the citizens, for them the opposite was true.
And perhaps you can recall how arrogant the government of the socialists was during the last years of its second mandate. The Government of the Democratic Party was heading straight towards this level of arrogance as well, and in particular a tendency towards exclusion: “us” and “them”, which formed a confrontational and almost hostile spirit with the Opposition and not only the Opposition. And then, a Prime Minister who takes everything upon himself and is responsible for everything; and things go as far as not allowing the handsome young man who is the Director of the Albanian Energy Corporation to resign, having failed dismally at this job, or not discharging him from this post; not to mention the Ministers.
Viewed from this angle, the loss of the Government in Tirana and other cities is a major opportunity and chance to win back the trust of the majority of the citizens over the next two to three years. And perhaps the first step towards achieving this would be reaching a consensus and working together with local government, particularly in those zones where the Opposition has won.
Third, the voices within the Opposition who read victory in Tirana and other cities as a message of and guarantee for early elections are still to be heard. Bearing in mind the results of the local government elections, the Opposition could be encouraged to block the election of the President in a few months time, to provoke early general elections and a possible return to office. However, in essence, this would be the best investment to undermine the trust of the citizens in the Opposition. Early elections are no big deal. But their provocation by the Opposition, through the trap of the Presidential elections, would be the most efficient method of undermining the trust of the citizens, particularly of that part of society which is neither with the Government nor with the Opposition. And this is the part that makes electoral victory yours.