Main opposition party elects new leadership council

TIRANA, Sept. 28 – The main opposition Democratic Party held its national convention last weekend to elect its new leadership council and to seek a reboot of its political actives following a landslide defeat in the 2013 parliamentary elections last summer.
Party leader Lulzim Basha publicly apologized to all the party members and Albanians in general for the loss in the elections. He attributed it to the distance that many of the party’s senior politicians had created with the membership and voters.
Basha also acknowledged that an increase in frequency of corruption allegations in the second mandate cost led to the party’s loss. The Democrats were in power from 2005 to 2013.
However, he went on blame the governing Socialist Party and its leader, Prime Minister Edi Rama, for taking the country in the wrong direction and for making false election pledges he can’t keep – which helped the Socialists and their allied to defeat the Democrats last year.
Basha said that after a year in government the Socialists had kept none of their promises, adding that the government was trying to establish an authoritarian approach to governance.
Rama’s Socialists won a big victory against the Democrats in the June 2013 parliamentary election, securing 84 of the 140 seats in parliament and forcing the Democrats’ perennial leader Sali Berisha to resign.
Basha replaced him after a competition with Sokol Olldashi, another senior political leader of the party, who died in a car accident a few weeks later.
Despite the change at the top of the party, Berisha retains a strong influence behind the scenes, analysts say, and he continues to enjoy strong support within the party.
Applauds for Berisha’s speech during the convention was longer and louder than after Basha’s keynote speech. Berisha lambasted Rama’s government as corrupt and called on people to rise up against it. He also said they will come to power sooner than expected, and the party would overwhelmingly win the local administrative elections scheduled for next year.
The 7,500 members invited to take part at the convention elected the 150-member leadership council.
Basha said the Democrats should continue to remain the main political force in the country for the center and center-right voters.