By Roland Qafoku
Edi Rama is expected to receive another mandate as the 33rd Prime Minister of the country, but the way we read the results of the June 25 polls have an element which is as important as his victory: Lulzim Basha is the biggest loser of these elections. With outrageous results in many districts, with figures that the DP has never seen in these past 27 years, by lossing ground in the biggest strongholds of the DP, the leader of the Democratic Party has no other choice but announce his failure. But why is Lulzim Basha such a big loser? There are at least 15 reasons why this lost and this failure are his exclusive responsibility in these elections.
- Lulzim Basha could not offer confidence and trust within the Democratic Party even after four years as leader of this political force. He could not manage to inspire the DP and lead it to a political battle, such as the Parliamentary elections, following the big defeat in the local government elections of 2015 and the partial elections in several municipalities, such as it was the case of Korca, Dibra and Kolonja. The democrats that saw their new leader Basha on 24 July 2013 as their rising star and a decent successor of former leader Sali Berisha, were slowly disappointed by him, losing an asset which cannot be converted with nothing: Confidence.
- Lulzim Basha made a very serious mistake at the peak of his quotations after 90 days in the tent, when he entered an agreement which was not at all transparent, suspicious and an agreement that he didn’t discuss with any forums of the DP. What he discussed in those five hours with his political opponent, Edi Rama, still remains a mystery.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake, as he had often done in these four years with the structures of the Democratic Party, by avoiding them and by taking “golden goal” type decisions and by not giving anybody time to discuss. This has been done repeatedly in many situations which start with the street protests, protest in the tent, parliamentary boycott and the drafting of the lists of candidates for Parliament. Basha has not convened any forums to take decisions, even formally, thus creating a relation which is not at all democratic and transparent within the DP.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake with the coordinators, sometimes by approaching them and sometimes by avoiding them. Basha has made a mistake in his relations with the national coordinators.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake with the list of candidates for MPs in these elections, which followed no rule or criteria determined by him. This list didn’t include legendary names of this party. Even today there’s no explanation as to why Jozefina Topalli was not in the list, but the outrageous result in Shkodra is the best answer for this. Even today there’s no explanation on the absence of Astrit Patozi on the list, but the result in Vlora is the best answer.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake with the youngsters of the DP, who have been the spirit of this party. Not only did he not include in the lists the leading forums and the head of the youth forum, but he didn’t even engage any structures of this forum in this campaign. The youngsters who were included in the lists without going through any forums were the worst example of how Basha, as leader of DP, has built his relations with the youth forum.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake after the agreement with Edi Rama when he never made a clear declaration as to whether a coalition would be forged or not with Edi Rama. He did say it in a way or another that he would not enter a coalition, but this declaration had to be issued a while ago and it no longer had any effects. Many admirers of the DP were believing that Edi Rama would be rescued by the Democratic Party if he didn’t obtain 71 seats and this causes a lot of confusion.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake with the program, because we still don’t know if he had a program or not. We didn’t see any discussions, any debates or any approval of objections within the DP about this program, besides the covers of a single file that Basha has displayed on screen. But only he and some other people within the DP have a way of knowing this.
- Lulzlim Basha made a mistake when in the middle of the campaign, he found the time to leave Albania and hold a bizarre meeting with the US President Donald Trump. Basha declared that in a conversation which lasted four minutes, he had told him all the negative things about Prime Minister Rama, while he had received explicit support from him.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake in his relations with Edi Rama, by falling a victim of his political trap. These mistakes start with the lack of transparency and end up with the fact that Rama led the SP’s campaign with the symbol of the two fingers.
- Lulzim Basha also made a mistake with Sali Berisha. For four years, we got the impression that Basha could not take any decisions without asking the godfather of the DP. But, the list and the fact that Berisha was not involved in the list showed that his relations with him were not that fair.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake with his relations with SMI with his bizarre positions. At the start of the campaign, he launched strong attacks against this political force and its leader by branding them as the most evil thing in this country, by using same phrases as Edi Rama had been using. Basha forgot that this “evil” made him mayor of Tirana in 2011 and also played a positive role in the solution of the crisis with the tent. Basha was not grateful to Meta and didn’t build political relations which would at least play in his favor.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake in his relations with the media. He sometimes approached journalists and particular TV networks and sometimes selected the names of the journalists that would interview him. Even today, it is hard to understand how the leader of DP constantly avoided his media specialists within the DP who have a long experience in the media.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake when he gave only one image and one voice to this campaign, and this would be his image and his voice. There haven’t been many activities of the Democratic Party where Lulzim Basha was not seen. He even went to TV studios to represent all of the structure of the DP, but this led to a personification of the entire campaign and this was a big mistake.
- Lulzim Basha made a mistake with his close collaborators by not including them in what he called New Republic. Names such as Fatbardh Kadilli, Enno Bozdo, Ina Zhupa, were the ones who felt disappointed in these elections. Not only were they not in the lists, but they weren’t even playmakers in the campaign.
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