March 2021
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Deeply Divided Albania Braces for Turbulent Election Despite appeals for the parties to observe international standards, there are fears that this April’s elections will see more polarisation and aggressive language than usual – and even violence. FJORI SINORUKA | BIRN | TIRANA
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Albania to “redouble its efforts to effectively shed light on enforced disappearances that took place during the communist regime”. Albania should investigate these crimes, prosecute those responsible and provide reparations to the victims and their families, the committee said. The ICMP is offering to help at the Mount Dajti and Ballsh sites with funding from the European Union, but it took heavy diplomatic pressure for the Albanian government to even approve a cooperation agreement with the organisation in 2018. “The government cares about public relations,” said one person who followed the process closely. “Beyond that, they don’t want to face abuses of the past. It’s a challenge and doesn’t bring in funds.” Critics say that government efforts have focused on glitzier projects, such as the former military bunker Bunk’Art and the former Sigurmi listening centre, the House of Leaves. Both projects help to illuminate the past but largely cater to a foreign crowd. They do little to soothe the suffering of roughly 6,000 families who seek comfort, closure and compensation. Since 1991, the approach of all governments, Socialist and Democratic, has been “calibrated not to irritate the old guard”, said one diplomat who followed the issue.
he campaign for the April 25 parliamentary elections in Albania may not have officially started – but already the programmes of the parties in a country suffering from a high rate of youth migration, poor health infrastructure and economic crisis are at the centre of public discourse. On Tuesday, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Matthew Palmer, sent a clear message to Albania’s political leaders to focus on upholding election standards. Such standards have “significant importance for US-Albania relations”, Palmer told Voice of America, VoA. “We want new [election] legislation to be implemented and the April elections to be done in accordance with highest international standards,” he warned. Despite such messages, analysts predict that this year’s campaign will be even more troubled and problematic than the last one four years ago. “This campaign is expected to be tenser than the one in 2017 when the result, in a way, was known before the elections, and when the campaign was more of a political show than a rivalry between parties,” Afrim Krasniqi, from the Institute for Political Studies, a Tirana think tank, told BIRN. On March 12, President Ilir Meta seized public attention when he physically intervened to stop the Tirana police from storming the offices of a small party, New Democratic Spirit, FRD, on the grounds that its contract to use the premises had expired. The party had been an ally of the governing Socialist Party in the city government, but the police action – suspiciously – came only days after it signed a pre-election coalition with the opposition Democratic Party of Lulzim Basha. In the last few years, the President has become one of the most vocal critics of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government, often siding with the opposition and with street protests held against it. After clashing in person with the city police, Meta told them to clear out, and was heard warning: “Leave, or I will put you in jail with my [bare] hands.” That incident was followed up by accusatory statements from both sides. Days later, the focus shifted to the central town of Elbasan, which has been in the grip of gangs and transformed into a virtual battlefield as a result of gang warfare. Both Rama and Basha picked the town to visit on March 15, to mark the traditional Summer Day and taste traditional homemade cookies, called “ballokume” – while in the background creating an arena for their respective supporters to clash. Scenes from the town showed predictable scuffles between groups of rival supporters. Krasniqi said the incident was all too typical, not only for the vulgarity of the party stalwarts but for their brazenness in carrying out violent acts in front of the cameras, their own political leaders and the police. “None of them has been criminally pros-
A commissioner painting a voter’s finger in Kamza on June 30, 2019. Illustrative photo: Gjergj Erebara / BIRN
ecuted while their criminal records are well known,” Krasniqi added. In his view, the police silence over the Elbasan incident contrasted vividly with their reaction five years ago, when they arrested student protesters in Tirana for throwing eggs at Rama’s escort. “[In that case] the students ended up in police stations and before the courts – but [now] when there are clear acts of violence, threats and blackmail toward citizens or journalists, there are no investigations or trials,” Krasniqi noted. Parties with no arguments encourage violence Krasniqi fears the political parties are not only tolerating but encouraging violence. “No political party has so far distanced itself from violent acts done by its supporters, and not one person involved in these incidents has been expelled from the party,” he observed. Communications expert Edlira Gjoni says political leaders are using aggressive language “to both distort meaning and confuse the voters”. “It is alarming to observe this aggressiveness, when voters expected to hear clear, accurate and understandable statements from politicians. The politicians choose this aggressive tone on purpose, as they have no real arguments to put forward,” Gjoni told BIRN. “It is a known fact in political communication that negative language and a harsh tone of voice causes tangible harms to campaigns and beyond, as it prevents voters from receiving facts and information,” she added. In Gjoni’s view, the campaign discourse is deepening the polarisation of the public. “This approach fosters misuse of communications, deeper misunderstanding, misuse of the public space, defamation and, worst of all, distrust, anger and resentment among voters. “It should be taken seriously before it escalates into civic discontent and further hatred,” Gjoni said. Criminals still lurking on candidates’ lists The failure to exclude convicted criminals from parliament has long been a concern of the US embassy in Tirana and other diplomatic corps in the country. US Ambassador Yuri Kim has his repeated his concern about this issue, as has his EU counterpart. The parties have now submitted their can-
didate lists for the April and elections and the election commission, CEC, is in consultation with the General Prosecutor’s Office, which must verify the candidates. The law barring convicts from standing for parliament “must be fully implemented and all candidates must meet high standards of integrity,” EU ambassador Luigi Soreca wrote on Twitter a few days ago, referring to the lists submitted to the election commission. Despite this, the Socialist election lists for the Durrës region reportedly contains three names linked to organised crime. In early March, the Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime, SPAK, sentenced Adem Lala, the former mayor of Has, in northern Albania, to eight months’ prison, suspended for a probationary period of one year and four months, for “abuse of duty”. He was accused along with a municipal employee of privatizing a public building in Has. However, as a Socialist Party leader, he was still seen introducing the party’s candidates for MP in the district. Krasniqi maintains that international community pressure forced most of the parties at the last minute to vet their candidates’ lists, before submitting them for certification to the CEC. However, some parties have used sly tricks to please both the international community and local powerful figures, he adds. “They compensate for removing [convicted criminals] by including their family members or company employees on the lists instead,” Krasniqi said. “Although some political leaders are still making mistakes, the institutions supposed to protect constitutional and public interests, like the CEC and prosecution, are not succeeding in decriminalizing and cleansing political representation from crime,” he added. PM Rama in this campaign, in which his party is running alone, is meanwhile asking Albanians for a third term “to continue the projects we have started” – such as justice reform, reconstruction after the 2019 earthquake and continued management of the COVID pandemic. Meanwhile, Basha and his allies are blamig the government’s bad governance for the mass flight of Albanians from the country, and for poverty, accusing it of corruption and links to organised crime.
