Worry about the economy and employment, growing anxiety about rule of law and democratic standards as well as eroding trust in many institutions, particularly the judiciary, lead Albanians’ concerns ahead of the June 23 general elections, according to an AIIS study.
TIRANA, April 24 – Concerns about the economy and jobs lead Albanians’ list of worries as the country approaches general parliamentary elections, according a countrywide study released this week by one of Albania’s leading think tanks.
At the start of what promises to be a an intense electoral campaign, voters also show a growing anxiety about rule of law and democratic standards as well as eroding trust in many institutions, particularly the judiciary, according to the survey released last week by the Albanian Institute for International Studies.
Yet despite worries about democracy and rule of law, economic issues led indicators of concern with majority of people interviewed in the study mentioning that the biggest problem that Albanians now face is the economic crisis. At the personal level citizens are largely worried about their insufficient incomes, the overall lack of jobs and the poverty in their lives.
Analysts note that Albania is currently at the height of its economic crisis, so the findings are not surprising as the country is feeling the worst effects of the European economic crisis.
Two thirds of the Albanian citizens asked described the economic situation in Albania as either bad or very bad followed by 22 percent which said it was average and a small group of 7 percent that said it was good. Virtually nobody described the economic situation as very good. As for future expectations the majority, 32 percent, expects no change in the economic outlook, 29 percent say that it will improve and 21 percent expect deterioration.
Against this grim economic reality and picture of concerns, 61 percent of Albanians would leave their country if they had an opportunity to do so.
Albanians don’t trust the justice system at all
Scathing evaluations are in store for the judicial system which seems to be despised by many citizens as they conclude in large numbers, indeed a full three quarters of the respondents, that this system does not deliver justice in Albania. 67 percent of citizens believe that in order to get justice one must have the right connections either personal or political. 75 percent of citizens believe that a bribe is needed in order to get justice from the current Albanian judicial system.
The tendency to distrust the justice system is becoming a worrying constant feature of the public opinion and is not bulging even after several attempts of reforming this sector.
Voters unhappy with education, health systems
Citizens are not happy with the quality offered in the basic services such as education and healthcare but the nuances are present when one differentiates between public and private options. Whereas a majority of citizens describe both public and private education as of average quality, more citizens believe that the private education quality is low, with 49 percent or about half of the sample, than those who say the same about public education, with 39 percent.
The reverse picture is presented in the evaluation of public and private healthcare with a majority of citizens saying that private healthcare offers indeed a good quality, 42 percent, whereas again the majority judges the quality of public healthcare as low or very low 65 percent. Roughly a third of the sample assigns average scores to both services when it comes to their quality.
Expectations of governance following the elections
Just as their main concerns lie on the economic plane, the main priorities of Albanian citizens for the future governance also reflect the same nature of economic centrality.
Albanians believe that the top priorities for the next Albanian parliament should be the “proper functioning of the state” with the largest score of 26.3 of the answers given; “guaranteeing possibilities for new job places and fighting poverty” with 21.2 percent of all answers as well as the traditional classic function of the parliament “to approve legislation and promote its implementation” with 13.1 percent of the answers.
Only 3.8 percent of respondents expect the parliament to have as a priority the unification of all Albanians in one state while 2.2 percent mention unification with Kosovo and 1.8 percent resolving the Cam issue as a priority.
When asked about the priorities of the new government, Albanians lean heavily on the economic side and focus on services. The top three priorities for the new government according to the respondents should be “economic development and the creation of new jobs” which consists in 28.8 percent of all answers given, “raising of standards in public services such as education and healthcare” with 17.8 percent of the answers and a tie between youth employment and fight against poverty at 16.5 and 16.4 percent for each.
Nationalist rhetoric lacks massive popular support
Nationalistic agenda issues are being mentioned by only 2.2 percent who pick unifying Albania with Kosovo as a priority while 1.8 percent speak about protecting the right of Albanians living outside the formal borders of Albania.
“Both these questions’ answers underline the fact that Albanians have pragmatic rather than high-cause nationalistic priorities and focus their interests in measures for economic development, fight against poverty and new job openings. Very few citizens seem to want the next legislative and executive undertaking nationalistic endeavors of any kind,” the authors of the study write.
High voter turnout, little trust expected in upcoming elections
Voter turnout is expected to be high in the upcoming elections as 71 percent of those asked said that they will be going to vote on June 23 and 76 percent said they had actively voted in the last local elections. Out of the small group that respondents that they were unlikely to go vote the majority explained this by saying that they either didn’t believe the elections were going to be free or they believed their vote didn’t matter and wouldn’t change things.
Indeed 42 percent of Albanians do not expect these elections to be free and fair against 30 percent that expect these standards indeed to be met. Many citizens remain confused over what to expect as a quarter of the sample does not field an answer.
The most important actors in the conducting of a free and fair elections process according to citizens were: the Central Elections Commission (CEC), the local counting commissioners and the foreign observers, with roughly 70 percent of answers attaching them considerable or maximum importance vis a vis the elections process.
The CEC is currently in crisis, as the opposition members have resigned after one of their colleagues was sacked by the governing coalition in parliament in what the opposition says was political interference in an independent body.
“It is significant under current events that citizens see CEC as the top actor. The current crisis at CEC could further erode the trust of the voters in the upcoming elections,” says Alba Cela, one of the study’s authors.
Half the population believes the country is going in the wrong direction
According to the majority of Albanians many major things are not on the right track in Albania. 51 percent of the citizens asked believed that the country is generally not moving in the right direction, 55 percent said democracy is on the wrong path and even more people seem very concerned about the economic situation as 65 percent said the Albanian economy is on the wrong path. A tenth of the citizen were undecided in all questions and did not field an answer.
60 percent of Albanians believe that they live in a non-democratic country, roughly divided between pessimists who say that Albania is outright not a democratic state and moderates who say that there are elements of democracy but overall Albania is rather undemocratic. The evaluation shows deterioration from last year and a growing anxiety about the health of democracy in Albania.
Marred elections, political conflict seen as challenges to democracy
The main challenges that Albanian democracy in order of importance according to citizens are: lack of free and fair elections (picked by a third of the respondents); political conflict (according to a quarter of the sample) lack of change in the leadership of political parties and large economic disparities in the population (each of the last two with 13 percent of the answers.) The three most important factors for Albanian democracy are: the government, the political leadership and the citizens. 14 percent of respondents believe the most important factor for democracy is the international community.
Albanians have little trust in public institutions
Confirming many previous polling, the level of trust that Albanians have in institutions and representative actors is very low. The entities that Albanians distrust the most are political parties, courts and the Prime Minister followed by the Central Election Commission and the government.
High levels of distrust are also present for the Office of the President and distrust persists though at lower levels for the opposition the Attorney’s General Office and religious institutions.
Those who fare better in the ranking of trust are media, civil society and the police with the first one being that which inspires more significant confidence than all other actors.
Low levels of horizontal trust and trust in institutions is a feature that many polls confirm for Albania and which taken in combination with high dependence on personal and kin relations often undermines the functioning of the state from within. Citizens reflect negatively on the inability of institutions to perform in a professional, impartial and effective way.
U.S. seen as key influencer, Greece most threatening
Half of the Albanian citizens believe that there has been a county with major influence on Albania and according to the majority of them this has been the United States (80 percent of those who identified an influential country.) Only 7 percent of those who see a foreign influence believe this comes from the European Union while 22 percent of citizens do not believe any state has a major influence on Albania.
A third of the respondents believe that there is a country which is a threat to Albania with more than half of them picking up Greece as a particular threat followed up by 22 percent of them selecting Serbia. 37 percent of citizens do not see any particular country as a direct threat to Albania and a third of the sample does not have an answer to this question.
Most of citizens believe Albania should concentrate its efforts in strengthening cooperation with Kosovo and Turkey followed by average groups who see benefits in collaborating with other countries in the region. The two countries to which citizens attach less value of increasing cooperation with are Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Half of the citizens believe that unification of Albania with Kosovo would be a positive thing followed by 29 percent who say it would be neither positive nor negative and 10 percent who describe it as negative. In a potential referendum 55 percent of citizens would vote in favor of unification, 16 percent would not go to vote and 14 percent would vote against.
“The big difference between the numbers of those who place unification with Kosovo as a very low priority, and the high number who say they would vote for it in a referendum, we believe to be a case of being ‘patriotically correct’ on the side of the interviewees when asked how they would vote in a referendum for unification,” adds Ms. Cela.
The study’s sample included 1,200 interviews in the country’s 12 county seats, including the country’s largest cities. And the authors note care was taken to interview. The state of Albanian Democracy at the Eve of 2013 General Elections Study interviews were conducted in February and March, and the study was made possible by the financial support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Austrian Development Agency.
