What are we to expect on June 25?

What are we to expect on June 25?
This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al

By Plator Nesturi

The election campaign has started. Countdown has started to 25 June and TV screens have been inundated by the images of the first political rallies. Rallies on chairs… In the past, Albanians used to borrow chairs from their neighbors when they needed to hold weddings in front of their house or hold funeral ceremonies. Today, they’re seating people down on chairs in political rallies. And it is not known where they come from, because it’s hard to believe that people bring chairs with them and form the shape of a regular half circle when they take a seat.

But this is not all. While the election campaign has started and political forces are demanding the votes of Albanian people on June 25, what people want to know is not what has been done during these four years or what economic program or platform parties offer. What concerns them the most is how the political configuration after the elections will be? Who will Rama make alliance with? Will SMI have any concerns after 25 June or will Basha swallow his pride and enter another big agreement with the one he was going to overthrow? Even on the media, the most frequent question that political leaders are asked is: “Who will you enter an alliance with?”. This does in fact provoke curiosity, because opinion polls are showing that it is more and more difficult for a single party to win the necessary seats to govern on its own. However, it remains a mere curiosity, because Albanians do not vote out of curiosity. They don’t vote with the only purpose of seeing the color combination of the new majority, if the pendulum of power will once again depend on the Socialist Movement for Integration or if the purple and blue will be combined together on the façade of the Council of Ministers building.

So far, we’re merely heading to polls out of curiosity, because even the questions which are asked in the media and news portals are focused on this point: who will you enter an alliance with? Absurd idiocy. As if the voter will be clear on who to vote once he’s clear on what the next coalition will be. Programs are no longer important. He no longer wants to know on issues of taxation, development projects, he doesn’t want to know if the road connecting his village will be built or if the problems with water supply will truly be solved. He no longer wants to know if there will be zonal development projects, businesses and new investments, programs for agricultural products, which have often been wasted throughout the years due to the lack of sales. It’s not even important for us to know or to be asked as to whom do we want to be represented by. Even if we have any specific questions on the region, town or village that we live in, who can we ask? Candidates for parliament didn’t know if they would be on the list and a part of them still cannot believe how they got in the list. None of them knew where they would run and as a result, they were unable to draft development platforms, projects and to get to know the area and its problems. The candidates’ only purpose is to collect the votes on behalf of the party or the votes of the party will turn them into our representatives, depending on their position on the list without straining themselves a lot.

These are elections where the general platforms are drafted in the headquarters of the main political parties. But we don’t know how these platforms will be implemented throughout the country and how particular problems will be solved in given areas, because even those who will be our future representatives and our voice for the development, projects, funds and their implementation, don’t know.

So, unless we know all of these, we have no other choice but turn to curiosity: Who will the parties that want to seize power enter an alliance with? This remains the only thing that triggers curiosity. Configuration of power is the only thing which may show that something is changing, because it’s been a while that no changes happen in our lives.

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Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy

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