Neither the pressure from the international community, nor sporadic efforts of agreement offer any positive signal to a possible compromise between the two ever-squabbling political groupings ahead of the May 8 local elections.
Tirana Times
TIRANA, March 29 – The May 8 local elections are the main issue that is now being discussed, debated and mentioned every minute of the daily agenda of the country’s politics.
There are different developments from both political groupings but they basically continue their electoral campaign, which has started for a long time, though the law says only 40 days ahead of the polls.
Meanwhile an effort of mediation seemed to have been a failure since the start.
The governing Democratic Party called a round table and offered a 16-point agreement that the parties could agree ahead of the elections, basically on respecting each other and an election ethics.
But the opposition Socialists responded with eight points, basically asking a guarantee that such deals are respected and insisting on checking the validity of the voters’ IDs.
That is expected to fail and very likely only the governing coalition will sign it on Friday.
The governing Democratic Party nominated its former Interior Minister Lulzim Basha to run against opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama for the post of the capital Tirana’s mayor.
Last week Interior Minister Lulzim Basha resigned in order to be able to run for mayor of Tirana in the May 8th local elections. The Albanian constitution bars a mayoral candidate to hold posts in the parliament or government at the same time. Basha’s main rival is incumbent mayor Edi Rama, the head of the opposition Socialist Party
Basha gave up his seat in parliament Friday to declare himself a candidate against Socialist opposition Edi Rama, who is seeking a fourth term as Tirana’s mayor. The contest comes amid fierce political rivalry, with the Socialists demanding that Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s conservative Democrats hold early elections over allegations of corruption and vote-rigging in the 2009 general election
That means that Basha has practically launched a daily campaign with meetings all around the capital. Interestingly he is now accompanied also by the Socialist Movement for Integration small leftist party of former deputy Premier Ilir Meta, unlike four years ago when it was sided with the big leftist coalition headed from the Socialists.
Rama, on his side, has not formally started his electoral campaign. Moreover he has also to take care of the whole party’s activity and it is not easy to focus in his next job. Both political groupings continue their tit-for-tat exchange of words.
The opposition accuses Prime Minister Sali Berisha for the Albania’s difficult economic conditions and also of rigging elections. They blame him on everything with their slogan “Sali is to blame.” They accuse him of the country’s poverty, unemployment. They also accuse Berisha and Basha for the killings of four protesters at the Jan. 21 demonstrations.
On the other side the Democrats said they had already opened a penal case against Felaj, involving her with an alleged corrupt activity when she was a prosecutor.
Berisha continues his daily agenda always playing a part of that for the local elections. Last week he also went to Brussels to take part at the summit of heads of states and governments of the European Union. He asked for their support in sending as many observers as possible at the May 8 local polls.
“We need the support of the Governments of the participating countries to sending a high number of observers for the local elections of 8 May, so that these elections will be monitored and more transparent” said Berisha.
Although Parliament is the institution that monitors the European local elections, the Prime Minister said that serious efforts are being made to have a delegation of the European Parliament in these elections.
Well, the government has already made such a request at the proper institution _ the OSCE’s ODIHR that formally launched the monitoring mission Tuesday with 15 experts, 24 long-term and about 400 short-term observers.
The political parties also squirmished for the legal deadline for registering candidates of the parties for the municipal mayors, who will compete in the local elections of May 8th. Both main political parties did sent their names but only at the last moment. The opposition also complained that some of her candidates could not be registered as the offices were closed ahead of time.
Leaderships of both groupings held meetings to discuss on the candidates and also on how their campaign is to be conducted.
Albania’s local government elections on May 8 are shaping up as a grudge match between the governing Democrats and opposition Socialists – so much so that a European Union envoy has flown in to urge politicians to stay cool and behave responsibly.
Albania’s poor electoral track record is the main reason why the country is stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder that leads to EU accession.
More than 20 years after emerging from hermit-like isolation, Albania has still not managed to hold an election deemed free and fair by international observers.
The Socialists are still smarting after losing the 2009 parliamentary election by a whisker, amid claims of ballot box fraud. That was intensified after the Jan. 21 violent demonstration in which four supporters were shot allegedly by shots from guardsmen, though only one of them is under arrest.
The opposition continues to complain that the government is making many manipulations of the voters’ lists adding many of them believed to be their supporters.
The opposition insists on demanding transparency on voter lists, electronic scanning of identity cards at polling stations and the right to a re-count if ballot box fraud is suspected.
