Government challenged by opposition’s Tirana model

TIRANA, June 23 – Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the governing Democratic Party will be challenged in the June 28 polls by Tirana Mayor Edi Rama of the main opposition Socialist party. The voting is considered a test of maturity for the tiny Balkan country’s democracy.
Albania, still one of Europe’s poorest countries, is to hold Sunday the seventh parliamentary election in its post-communist period, all of which have never fully complied with international standards.
Some 3.1 million eligible voters will cast their ballot in a new regional proportional system to elect 140 lawmakers among 4,300 candidates of the four main coalitions – two centre-right coalitions of the governing Democratic Party-led Alliance for Change and the Freedom Pole in front of the two leftist coalitions of the main Socialist Party-led Union for Change and the Socialist Alliance for Integration.
The last four years of governance will be challenged by a Tirana-model management of the opposition.
Since coming back to power in 2005 the premier, with a previous mandate as the country’s first post-communist president, Berisha claims successes in making Albania a NATO member and also applying for the European Union’s candidate status.
Authorities have been striving hard to complete the Durres-Kukes-Morini highway, a link to neighboring Kosovo, considered as the country’s biggest infrastructure project.
The premier has pledged to turn the country into a small energy superpower in the region, after recently signing at least three big deals in billions of euros on energy production.
The government has improved the business environment, having been mentioned in World Bank reports as one of the world’s leaders in reforms, following a 10-percent flat tax and reducing registration time. Salaries of health and education personnel and pensioners have doubled and thousand of road segments have been rehabilitated.
“Let’s continue together the reconstruction of European Albania, “ says Berisha, pledging Albanians will have a visa-free regime for Europe within a year of the second mandate.
Berisha is challenged by Edi Rama, the new opposition Socialist Party leader and also Tirana mayor, offering as a model the capital’s new face since he came to power nine years ago.
“I don’t want to be a prime minister that exploits the country to serve a corrupted group of people that has kidnapped the government wanting to have a second mandate to continue the government’s business with his (Berisha’s) family,“ Rama says.
The opposition blames Berisha’s government and the premier himself in a series of scandals and of failing to fight corruption which took them to power four years ago.
The opposition blames Berisha and his government for last year’s blast at an ammunition disposal factory near the capital, Tirana, which killed 26, injured 300 and damaged thousands of homes. Former Defense Minister, Fatmir Mediu, leader of the governing coalition Republican Party, is on trial accused of abuse of post.
They blame Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha for abuse of public money at the Durres-Kukes highway project, to continue with accusations of Berisha’s close family members exploiting his post to get personally enriched.
“The June 28 vote will close an epoch and open a new one,“ Rama said, introducing a more socialist oriented platform with greater assistance to poor families to buy school books, increase salaries and support agriculture as a main source of income in the country.
The opposition also offers lifting the visas in the first year of its mandate.
Platforms of both main parties do not differ much, both offering fighting poverty and securing from 160,000 to 200,000 new jobs, raising salaries and offering health insurance that will be affordable to all.
Berisha insists that Albania is to have GDP growth this year, despite the world’s recession. The opposition, on its side, says they will renegotiate to have the IMF counseling return.
Albania’s democracy will be under international scrutiny Sunday after weeks of rowdy election rallies and slogans, fancy songs and wild promises of future prosperity. Three deaths have been well-exploited in the daily campaign though it is hard to say if they were directly linked to the elections.
About 500 international observers and more than 3,000 local ones will monitor the polls.
The European Union and United States have clearly said that Albania must hold free and fair elections if it hopes to form closer ties with the West.
Previous elections in Albania have been plagued by fraud and irregularities with losers never conceding defeat.
“The elections on 28 June will be an important test of Albania’s democratic maturity and readiness to move forward toward closer integration with the EU,” said an EU statement. “We, the EU, are watching the elections process closely. It is our hope, and in Albania’s interests, that these elections are peaceful and that they are judged to meet international standards.”