MP candidate seriously injured in assault, as EU calls on Albanians and parties to create a peaceful environment
TIRANA, June 10 – A candidate of the recently created center-right New Democratic Spirit Party was severely beaten in the southwestern town of Roskovec last Sunday, marking the latest episode of electoral violence in trend that has alarmed domestic and international observers.
International representatives have called on Albanians and all political parties to make sure the elections take place in a peaceful environment.
Candidate’s beating ‘politically motivated’
Mit’hat Hoxha, 50, was hospitalized at the Fier regional hospital after being physically assaulted on Sunday night near his house in the town of Roskovec in Fier County, registering the first serious campaign incident involving an MP candidate.
Family members said Hoxha had received threats to not campaign on behalf of NDS, but police denied having received any such information by the assaulted candidate.
The NDS is an opposition partyled by former President Bamir Topi, and many of its members are former supporters of the ruling Democratic Party.
In a press conference, Topi condemned the attack as politically motivated and called on Prime Minister Sali Berisha to guarantee free and fair elections.
Hoxha ranks sixth in the list of candidate MPs for the NDS in the region of Fier, where 16 MPs will be elected. Such placement and preliminary polls indicate he has no statistical chance of being elected to parliament under Albania’s electoral code, but the NDS said he had been targeted due to his campaign activities.
He was first taken to Fier hospital and then transported to capital Tirana at the military hospital for better treatment. His face was visibly scarred and swollen from the beating, and seen on newscasts across Albania.
Topi said police were not doing enough to protect candidates. He said this was clearly act of political violence.
Hoxha’s family members said that there had been previous threats on phone that he should have withdrawn from the political race and even leave politics.
Police said on they had no warning that Hoxha had been threatened. They said said they had detained one of the three men suspected in participating in the beating. Police say their investigation shows the beating was not political, but did not give other reasons for the attack, citing an ongoing investigation. However, the 29-year-old man arrested, Eugen Caushi is the brother Roskovec’s mayor and a Democratic Party supporter, according media reports.
Such violent acts show the June 23 national polls are getting away from the calm atmosephere needed, showing that there is an increased threat of violence, which has been seen in other elections as well.
The NDS is running alone in these elections having refused coalitions with the ruling Democrats or the opposition Socialists.
EU calls for peaceful election
The European Union has expressed serious concern about the increase in election violence in the Albanian electoral campaign.
EU representatives have asked political forces and Albanians in general to refrain from violence during the elections period, according to a brief statement issued on its website.
The joint message of the Delegation of the European Union to Albania and ambassadors of EU countries further urged everyone to make sure the elections take place in a calm and peaceful environment.
The call comes following several reports of violence related to the elections.
The Delegation of the European Union to Albania, in agreement with the EU ambassadors in Albania, said it is following the electoral process closely.
“Among the European and international standards which we expect to be implemented, one of the most important is to refrain from violence, in accordance with the citizens’ expectation that the elections take place in a calm and peaceful environment,” said the statement.
EU officials also called on “all Albanians to behave accordingly, and we expect the political parties to give strict instructions to their members and supporters in that respect.”
EU has made it clear that the June 23 elections are a key test for Tirana to advance the country’s battered EU integration goals.
Tirana applied for the EU candidate status in 2009, but it has received three negative responses from Brussels, asking for better political compromise and more reforms to fight crime and corruption.
Late last month, Jonathan Moore, a top official with the U.S. Department of State said in a visit to Tirana that if the June 23 elections were accompanied with violence, then Albania “would enter a collision course with the United States.”
A trend of campaign incidents
Despite by a trend of violent incidents, by Albanian standards, they remain minor, say media analysts. Since the collapse of communism in 1991, Albania has seen a series of elections marked by fraud and violence, peaking with the elections of 1997, held following near anarchy.
A report by TCJE.org, a nonprofit media organization, notes that Albanian elections are often marred by intimidation and violence, that have been more pronounced in the earlier years of Albanian democracy.
However, more than two decades since the fall of communism, there have been several incidents involving those participating in the campaign of the June 23 elections. These ranged from burglaries at an electoral office, damage of posters and billboards to more serious crimes like an explosion, arson and physical assaults.
The most serious event before Hoxha’s beating took place in the southern coastal city of Vlora, where a small amount of explosive was set off in the apartment block where Ardian Kollozi, the head of the ruling Democratic Party in Vlora and candidate MP for the DP in this region, lives. The ruling Democrats described the explosion which caused only material damage as politically motivated while the opposition Socialists distanced themselves from the act.
Just before the official start of the electoral campaign on May 24, a local Democratic Party official in Kukes was seriously wounded in an armed attack while the Socialist Party head in Preza, a village in the outskirts of Tirana, had his house and business set on fire by arsonists
