Why did the SP win the elections on its own?

Why did the SP win the elections on its own?
This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al

By Alfred Peza

A week ago, in my article “The six scenarios of June 25!” written for this newspaper, I had predicted, as the first possibility, the scenario that actually took place. The scenario which gave the SP up to 75 seats with the possibility to form a government on its own, without the help of the allies. Briefly, I presented some of the reasons which could lead to this result. But today, I would like to go into more details, trying to analyze one of the main causes that enabled to the SP this victory, which nobody had ever imagined before. Perhaps, this result seems to have exceeded Edi Rama’s expectations too, the mastermind of the idea of governing on his own for the next four years. This became the main theme of his campaign all over the country.

The main reason relates to the preparation of the main parties for this victory. “If you fail to prepare, know that you are in fact preparing to fail”, is a known political expression. Even if you don’t have a lot of information, you just need to follow the result reached by each of the political parties, to understand that their preparation is fully compliant with the result that has been obtained.  Immediately after the approval of the new administrative-territorial reform in the country, the SP and Edi Rama started work in order for the SP to adapt to this new reality and to undertake, before all other parties, a number of very important organizational steps, starting with the campaign of new accessions, new elections within the party, the election of the leading structures, the creation of the coordination networks, the new digital organization of the SP, the reorganization of the youth forum, the woman forum, the election of the 12 delegates of the Leading Committee in 12 districts of the country and the daily and weekly work on the ground to prepare for the elections.

While the SP worked every day, the DP didn’t even bother, continuing with a spontaneous style of leadership and organization, chasing random causes and battles without essence, inside and especially, outside Parliament. When he remembered that the election campaign was near, Lulzim Basha was forced to enter the tent for three months. Through this tent, he thought that he found Harry Potter’s magic wand, to solve not only the problems of the past, but also those of the future. Failing to prepare, the leader of DP got ready to fail, as the result obtained on Sunday shows. This result is one of the weakest one of this party in the past 27 years. On the other hand, SMI didn’t fail to prepare. But it prepared through a wrong projection, to achieve wrong strategic goals. If not the biggest party in the country, its aim was to turn into the second biggest political party in the country by doubling the result and getting ready to government Albania in the near future. One of the mistakes of the SMI was its goal to become a large party through small causes. Although the cause of being employed in the public sector may have worked out in particular segments of society, it was destined fail not only SMI, but any other political force with its ambition, not only due to the practical restrictions that apply to this method in Albania, but also because it doesn’t manage to create a long term program, which would lead many people to embrace it massively.

PJIU is one of the few parliamentary parties which has been more clear on its strength and limits, by maximizing with all of its energies, every vote in those areas where it is supported. It has also behaved rationally in other urban areas, where it has not been possible to obtain results which could turn into seats in Parliament. This political force may be considered as a successful one with the result that it has achieved. Meanwhile, other parties such as LIBRA of Ben Blushi and Challenge for Albania led by Gjergj Bojaxhi, were destined to fail since the very start, because they failed to prepare for a victory and because their leaders paid more attention to the form rather than the content.

In Albania, the new small parties that are born are more worried about the media space offered to their leaders, rather than the possible steps that need to be taken for a new approach, to make people truly believe that we have to do with parties, programs, teams and different leaders to what we have today, because like Dr. Albert Schweitzer says, “The example (of the leader) is not the main method to influence the others. It is the only method”. If you cannot manage to reflect the idea of change, change shall never happen.

By identifying this gap in the Albanian political arena, Edi Rama embraced a new model of efforts of a party and a prime minister, in order to carry out the deep reforms of the modern state after 1990, achieving tangible results in several key sectors through the macroeconomic stability of the country, growth of salaries and pensions, economic growth, legalization, judicial reform, the program of urban renaissance and the improvement of the image of Albania in the region and the world.

Rama held one of the most interesting campaigns that the leader of a political party has ever held in an election in Albania, making the people of this country massively embrace his request to offer him a possibility to do more things during the second term in office. But this time, by trusting the “steering wheel” of the government of Albania to the SP alone, without other allies “on the lap”. And so, Edi Rama managed to seize this opportunity, because with the intuition of an experienced politician, he knows that life is an opportunity. A person who goes far, is ready to do and to dare, because “a safe boat never sails too far from the coast”. He dared to demand and work with the aim of winning, something that not many people could believe two years ago. But he was certainly driven by intuition, telling him that 25 June was his opportunity. Not only he believed on it, but he also seized it, to snatch a once in a lifetime opportunity. The chance to govern Albania on his own up until 2021.

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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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