TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
After the illegal demolition of the National Theatre and the disproportionate violence exerted by the police on the protesters, the de-facto opposition which sits outside the Assembly declared that this brash aggressive move put an end to the consensus on the reforms necessary to be fulfilled for the integration process. Chief among them at least in terms of time: the Electoral Reform. However the western embassies based in Tirana had other plans. An intensive round of meetings, public declarations and tweets from the US Embassy, the EU Delegation and some key EU member state embassies made sure to ‘convince’ the members of the political council back on the table.
After failing for months to properly discuss and negotiate their demands, suddenly all the political parties’ representative felt confident that they could do so in a matter of days. Whatever seemed unattainable, now was suddenly due by May 31, a self-imposed deadline nothing less.
It is within this rush and this obvious lack of local ownership and dedication that we can already see the failure of delivering any substantial change or improvement for Albanian elections- the crucible of failure in Albanian transition. These days discussion have revolved around secondary, tangential issues such as timing of elections ( not to interfere with tourist season as if this has been the real problem !) , consolidating impact of gender quota, and some minor tweak on party finance. Heavyweight issues such as system change or mechanisms to ensure punity for electoral crimes are described as either postponed or agreed to stay put by the major parties.
Even a small yet important change of opening up the lists to the evaluation and ranking of voters rather than in the fixed placement positions by the party leader is not subject of discussion anymore. Though it would not be revolutionary, the open lists would still bring some modest degree of real choice compared to the individual cult-led system of today.
Looks familiar? That’s because it is the same good old ticking the box exercise. It looks good in the reporting done for the measures to fulfill conditions for the first intergovernmental conference and go forward for the EU integration. It shows willingness to compromise by the majority and refrain from extreme destructive political behavior for the opposition.
The electoral reform ambitions on paper were to establish the rules of the game, once again with the hope of being seen through. Unless any real (unlikely) breakthrough achievement is announced in the remaining days, the game goes on, unaltered and ultimately undemocratic.
