Tirana, 22 May 2011

Once again, only two weeks after local elections, the political situation in Tirana and throughout Albania is rather tense. Mayoral elections of May 8th were followed by a quite slow vote count, which ended with an incredibly narrow margin of 10 votes (on more than 250 000) in favor of Edi Rama, incumbent mayor of Tirana and national leader of the Socialist Party (SP). According to the early results, former minister of interior and Democration Party (DP) enfant prodige Lulzim Basha was defeated by Rama in what appeared an extremely tight victory. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC), however, decided to continue the vote count including also all ballot papers found in the wrong boxes (Tirana citizens voted for the mayor, for the municipal council, and two for the chairman of each local area council and council members [1]). Since its creation as a State in 1912, these elections can be considered the first in which Albanian voters feel that each of their votes were being accurately counted. Major TV networks broadcasted live the vote counting process, in order to prove the reliability of such an event. This reminds us that Albania is still on the path to democracy, and that although the country is trying to copy Western democracies its people have to imagine how to shape their own democratic system. It should also be noted that local election turnout in Tirana was 38,7%, the lowest among major cities and well below the national average of 50.9%, marking a clear symptom of citizens’ mistrust of the political class. So far, the question on the legality of the CEC decision to count wrongly-casted ballot papers has become Tirana’s big issue. The Socialist Party, led by Edi Rama (mayor of Tirana since 2000, for three terms), claims that the CEC is following Berisha’s government orders and is therefore trying to manipulate the results in favor of the other candidate. Rama has called upon his supporters to “protect the vote” and stop the “illegal process” of recounting. In the last few days, a huge crowd of SP supporters has gathered outside the CEC offices, surrounded by hundreds of men from the police forces.

Since 2009 general elections Albanian political scene has been characterized by tension, high tones, stark confrontation, boycott of parliament sessions by opposition members. The European Commission and all international organizations have warned Albanian parties that such political deadlock will only slow down the country’s path towards a greater integration with its EU partners. Nevertheless, Albania is again on the brink of a political catastrophe. The next few days will show whether negotiation and responsibility will prevail or if the country will slip into serious unrest and, potentially, violence.