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Albanian Parties End Standoff Over Elections

18 01 2007  Breakthrough ends crisis that threatened country’s integration progress.

By Erlis Cela and Ergys Gjencaj in Tirana (Balkan Insight, 18 Jan 07)

Albania’s Democratic Party-led coalition and the opposition Socialists have reached a deal, opening the way to holding local elections and ending a standoff that had attracted growing concern in Europe.

Under the agreement reached on January 12 between Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Socialist leader and Mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, local polls will go ahead next month.

“The sides have understood the message that local elections are a good opportunity to prove Albania is making steps ahead in the development of democracy,” said President Alfred Moisiu.

The president first called for polls to take place on January 20, but as a political stalemate worsened over voting procedures, it became questionable whether the vote would take place at all.

The row centered on the voter lists, which include thousands of people registered in more than one place because of the internal move of the population during the post-communist period. The other problem was that the Socialists insisted that the voters should not use only birth certificates as identification as they claimed that the government had issued fake birth certificates that could be used for election manipulation.

International bodies heaved a sigh of relief, having warned that the right-left power struggle in Albania was threatening its democratic progress and delaying integration into key foreign forums, including the European Union and NATO.

The Council of Europe, which sent a mission to Albania, hailed the deal as “good news for the Albanian people who may, at last, vote for their elected persons”.

The OSCE, whose observers are monitoring the elections, also greeted the deal. It was “an important step in ensuring free and fair elections in the framework of a reform process that must continue until completed”, said Spain’s foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. He had sent a personal envoy, Jose Pons, to Tirana to assist the search for a compromise, following a request from the political parties in Albania.

The battle over the use of birth certificates as proof of identity by voters at elections blew up partly because Albania has not yet issued its citizens with ID cards.

The opposition alleged that the government printed and distributed more than a million false birth certificates over the summer to its supporters with the intention of allowing them to vote multiple times, a charge that Berisha strongly denied.

Under the latest deal, voters using birth certificates to cast ballots will have to bring two additional forms of identification to the polls.

The deal was largely a victory for the opposition who had forced Berisha to submit to their demands concerning the electoral lists.

“Now we can go calmly into elections in which all will have an equal chance to vote,” Rama said after the agreement was reached.

Berisha was diplomatic. “This is a victory for any normal and reasonable Albanian citizen and his family’s European aspirations,” he said. “The agreement means the citizens won and Albania won.”

However, some analysts believe that while the opposition scored most points in the battle over the birth certificates, their tactics may have confused and alienated the public.

“It’s true the opposition won the ‘political battle’,” said independent analyst Aleksander Cipa. “But that victory looks of minor importance considering the negative image of the country [it has created] in the international community.”

Hopefully, the latest deal has ended more than a year of disputes about electoral reforms, which began after President Moisiu convened a political round table in December 2005 tasked with settling reforms.

Arguments soon started, first concerning representation of smaller parties in the electoral bodies and media coverage.

Last August, the two main blocs signed a deal authorising a parliamentary commission to speed up amendments to the constitution and the electoral code. But the commission hardly met until mid-to-late October and there was no substantive agreement.

After Moisiu decreed January 20 as the date for the local polls, the opposition immediately said it would not take part without changes to electoral lists, postponement of the voting date and re-examination of what it said were fake birth certificates.

On December 30 the two political blocs agreed to postpone the elections to February 18 but the issue of the birth certificates remained unresolved, sparking concern from Europe, NATO and other institutions.

After the January 12 deal fulfilled the main requests of the opposition, parliament the next day voted unanimously in favour of the agreed constitutional and electoral amendments.

Local analysts had earlier described the affair as a bad omen for the country’s integration drive. “With this crisis Albania has taken several steps backwards,”said analyst Armand Shkullaku, blaming the opposition leader for lacking the goodwill to reach a compromise.

Another independent analyst, Lutfi Dervishi, said the crisis had reflected badly on politicians. “It shows Albanian society is more politically mature than the political class,” he said. “We are not entering elections in a calm climate as the stress level is still high. Again we are heading for a campaign full of conflict.”

Observers said a surprise meeting between Berisha and the former Socialist premier Fatos Nano on January 11 had helped force a breakthrough.

“We call on [all sides] to resolve their dispute so that the electoral process, so vital for democracy, goes ahead,” the two men’s joint statement read.

Their meeting was also seen as a threat to Rama, raising the possibility that Nano might join forces with Berisha in future. Indeed, that development looks more than likely if he runs for the country’s presidency this summer.

Erlis Cela is a journalist with the daily Standard. Ergys Gjencaj is a journalist with the daily Korrieri. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.