After many violent incidents, at last Prime Minister Sali Berisha called on the people to avoid violence. Though that call has not come from the opposition leaders, it still serves to calm down the political militants who often have referred to violence to support their political affiliation
Tirana Times
TIRANA, April 12 – At last, it came: a call from a top political leader that violence does not help the country’s democracy.
It came Wednesday when Prime Minister Sali Berisha called on the people, his militant in the southern city of Lushnja that they should refer not to violence and avoid tension and provocation during the electoral campaign.
That was good, whatever it really means to his militants or to the common people.
It has become so necessary that top politicians call on the people to be calm and avoid confrontation.
These are elections, local elections on the administration of the town halls and communes, not who is coming to power.
Albanian Socialist Party of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama opened officially the electoral campaign and the same had been done before by the governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Unfortunately the electoral campaign is finding difficulties, clashes between the two opposing groupings almost every day. Fortunately there has been no life-threatening situation though the use of weapons and threats has not been missing.
But what is really threatening is the lack of any call for calm from the two opposing groupings’ leaderships.
It seems that it is in their interest to increase the motivation of their supporters and militants ahead of the May 8 local elections. There does not seem to be any other real motive than that.
The US Ambassador Alexander Arvizu immediately called for calm from an activity he held in Fier this week. The non-governmental organizations also made a call for calm. He also explicitly advised the Albanian politicians they should focus more on what they could give to the electorate rather than the political fighting with words. “Albania spends more energy for the politics rather than for the vision and for the future of the country, ” he said.
OSCE Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth said that they hoped that Albania would hold free and fair local elections and reminded it they had applied only a few out of 31 recommendations made from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) after the 2009 elections.
Wollfarth also called on all parties to abstain from violence and avoid incidents that have marred campaigning over the past ten days.
But not the party leaders.
They are seen every day traveling all over the country and offering ‘fantastic’ promises to their supporters in gatherings which are slowly moving from the sports halls to the town squares.
Meanwhile in Tirana and close to that their supporters have almost clashed physically to defend their flags or electoral tents.
Every day people listen to almost half an hour of news with both main leaders and other ones talking to supporters in different towns, with pledges of employment, a better quality of life and so on and so forth.
If they were to be believed on could think that Albania would be turned into a paradise in the next four years.
At the same time people also listen to nasty words that leaders throw against each other. One could understand from them that they are led from some Mafia heads, or corrupted people who only think of themselves.
So what is to be believed — their pledges or the accusations against them? That makes the decision for the undecided very difficult.’
Politicians either praise the government’s achievements or put them down as the failure for the country. They listen to praising of the municipal projects implemented from the Tirana city hall or its failure in capital Tirana,
The main battle for the May 8 elections remains capital Tirana where Rama is running, or challenged from Lulzim Basha, former interior minister. Rama is running for a fourth mandate to govern Tirana.
Neither these nasty words against each other, nor the tense situation and the increased adrenaline for their supporters pay no attention to Europe’s warning that failure to meet EU best practice on May 8 will harm Albania’s membership hopes.
The police are being used politically, the opposition accuses. They continue accusation of the manipulation from the Central Electoral Commission and also accuse the government of illegally using citizens’ personal data in the electoral campaign.
The government dismisses the accusations as slander on the part of an opposition that wants to contest the results before losing the election.
The May 8 vote is seen as a key test of Albania’s democratic credentials following a violent anti-government rally on January 21 that left four protesters dead and which has been the source of a heated dispute between the opposition and the ruling party.
The ruling Democrats and the opposition have blamed each other for the riots, adding to the high tension between Socialists and Democrats, who have been locked in a power struggle since the last general election in June 2009.
A report issued by a local coalition of NGOs that will monitor the May 8 elections painted a bleak picture of the political climate and of the parties’ unwillingness to compromise.The report listed a number of breaches of the electoral code already committed by both opposition and ruling parties, before the electoral campaign had even started.
opposition members returned at the Central Election Commission and they hope that some of their demands will be taken in consideration. They had been absent for a few months in protest.
The report named at least four armed incidents involving candidates or local officials on the eve the campaign, which left two people wounded.
they were added with more over last weekend and earlier this week. Owners of a coffee bar in Kashar, near Tirana, were threatened and beaten for having more flags of a political grouping. In Bathore, also close to Tirana, supporters of both sides almost clashed physically Sunday after some skirmishes. The next day construction police and Tirana city hall police quarreled for hours for an electoral tent.
But no call for calm from any side.
