Polls spark political fight

TIRANA, Feb 11 – Two separate polls gave the victory of the upcoming June 28 general elections to the governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the main opposition Socialist Party of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama.
There is no culture of polls in the country. It was only during the last general elections in 2005 when there was held a poll, by Gani Bobi foundation, which resulted victorious in the general sense.
But it seems that Albanians had another shock with the polls this time to see two different ones referring to the main political parties as the winners.
The polls also urged all politicians to consider their results as partial and resume the daily squabbling.
Albania’s opposition Socialist party is ahead of the ruling Democrats of Prime Minister Sali Berisha in voter preference four months before the general election, according to a poll conducted by Zogby International for broadcaster Top Channel TV.
Zogby questioned 1,000 persons and had a 3.2 percent margin of mistake.
Thirty-seven percent of the people said they would vote for the main opposition Socialists and only 30 percent for the governing Democrats and five percent for the SMI.
Besides 19 percent of the people were not determined where to cast their vote and only four percent did not answer.
They also showed that the Christian Democrats, the Human Right Union Party and the Republican Party had each one percent.
They also said that neither Berisha nor Rama were efficient in their work; only 32 percent said Berisha was doing well compared to 65 percent negative while on Rama there were 44 percent positive and 52 percent negative.
Forty-four percent of the people said the country was going to the proper road and only 41 percent said the opposite. Unemployment was the main cause of concern for 66 percent of the people and the situation of economy disturbed only 57 percent and poverty 47 percent.
People thought positively of the main parties, 54 percent for the Democrats and 62 percent for the Socialists.
In another poll by the Gani Bobi foundation, the Democratic Party was significantly ahead of the Socialist Party.
This poll had also a 2-4 percent margin of mistake. They questioned 747 persons in December.
The poll showed that 48 percent of the questioned thought the Democrats would remain in power compared to only 37 percent favoring the opposition Socialists, 6.1 percent for the SMI and 2.5 percent for G99.
The poll also showed that President Bamir Topi was the most popular person while the difference on preference between Rama and Berisha was very small with slightly higher for Rama.
It was the Socialist Movement for Integration which claimed both polls were not correct or faked and one of their lawmakers also presented another poll result, not showing which had conducted it, giving them about 35 seats in the new parliament.
“I can tell you that neither the Gani Bobi poll nor that of the Gani Zogby one cannot stop this unstoppable change in Albania,” said SMI head Ilir Meta, adding that both polls had put his party much below their results.
Meta said that his party had now a 25-27 percent support among the voters. A year ago it was 11-12 percent.
Thus the poll game has already started. It will very likely become a good tool or toy to play for the political parties in their daily fight but, on the other side, it may also turn into a boomerang on them. People have long been suspicious of their political parties, continuously not trusting their electoral pledges. It will be only the group of militants who seem to be reduced with each day passing.