TIRANA, April 16 – The Institute of Political Studies held surveys with 201 Socialist Party Electoral Congress delegates on topics such as party identities, composition of delegates, mandates, legitimacy and political activities, where the biggest part said they believe the solution to the deadlock is dialogue between the government and the opposition and that ballot-buying has indeed affected the elections.
The questions addressed to the SP delegates on the issue of the deadlock were: will there be talks and agreements? Will there be mediation and international pressure on a similar pattern of agreements like in North Macedonia in 2015 or Albania 2017? What is the assessment of the possibility of a new political dialogue and agreement to end the current political crisis in Albania? Does the buying and selling of ballots impact elections?
The biggest chunk of the surveys showed that the majority of Socialist delegates think differently than Prime Minister Edi Rama.
About 75 percent of SP delegates shared a positive assessment of the 2017 deal, while 59 percent believe that the current crisis will be resolved with a new political agreement between the two parties.
This can be translated into a political message of the SP delegates, that the governing majority should also sit down with the opposition to reach a consensus in order to resolve the political crisis, as the Socialists themselves realize that it is extremely difficult for the Socialist majority to survive alone in parliament without an opposition.
The SP delegates also answered survey questions regarding one of the reasons that led the opposition parties to resign their parliamentary mandates and seek Rama’s resignation – the issue of ballot buying, as investigated by VoA and journalist Klodiana Llalla during the whitening and publication of File 339 by the Serious Crimes Prosecution.
In this context, the opposition claims the elected socialist parliament is not a valid parliament and for this reason the country should undergo early elections.
Rama has categorically dismissed the possibility of early parliamentary elections, while the OSCE in Tirana, as well as some foreign ambassadors, stated that ballot buying did not affect the result of elections, making the parliament legitimate.
However, contrary to the attitude of Rama and ambassadors accredited in Tirana, 60 percent of SP delegates think that ballot buying and selling has an impact on the election, while only 38 percent think they have no major influence on the elections.
It has been over 55 days that the opposition has resigned its MP mandates, causing the parliament to now function only with the majority, while the new MPs who filled some vacancies are no longer representing neither the opposition, nor the right-wing electorate. In these conditions, the parliament is now functioning with 102 out of 140 lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the absence of the Constitutional Court for more than 18 months under the ongoing justice reform changes creates not only a constitutional vacuum but also a lack of constitutional order, with political parties not being able to appeal to the court over irregularities.
This has not prevented Prime Minister Rama from declaring from time to time that the opposition is now to enter parliament only after the 2021 parliamentary elections and that even the upcoming local elections of June 30, 2019, will take place without the opposition. Meanwhile, a number of political experts and scholars, as well as ambassadors, have echoed the survey’s general stand and advised the government to also take a step back and engage in political dialogue.
