ALB
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By Alket Aliu
The Democratic Party has started a process of analysis for the June 25 election results and the elections in the party’s structures.
A directive signed by the party’s chairman, Lulzim Basha and the party’s general secretary, Arben Ristani, defines the modalities of this analysis. The directive which dates 06.10.2017 and has been distributed to local DP braches in the recent days. The guideline is dubbed “Launch of consultations and analysis of the Democratic Party’s organizational structures”.
The main points of the analysis
Since the very first sentence of the directive, it’s clear that the analysis will be focused on the “manipulation of the elections”, looking to blame external factors for this electoral defeat.
“The manipulation of the June 25 election has aggravated the political and social crisis in the country and has seriously damaged the confidence of the people on our political system and as a result, it has also reduced confidence on the future in Albania”, the guideline says.
But, the general secretary of the Democratic Party, Arben Ristani told Albanian Free Press that he doesn’t think that this should be perceived like this. “The analysis of the electoral result also includes a detailed analysis by making comparisons with previous elections. Without a doubt, we must also look for external factors which led to this result”.
It looks like the Democratic Party will not consider DP’s participation in Prime Minister’s Rama cabinet with one deputy PM, six ministers and important heads of departments, as a positive thing.
“The Democratic Party considers the recent elections as a wasted opportunity, which not only did not bring anything new to improve the economic and social situation in the country, but also aggravated phenomena such as pressure against voters, involvement of organized crime in the process, the sale of the vote and the alienation of the electors’ will”, the directive signed by the most senior party officials states.
According to this directive, the phenomena that should have been prevented through the participation of the DP’s technocrat ministers not only could not be prevented, but expanded even more.
In spite of this, Ristani says that the participation of the technocrat ministers in Rama’s cabinet has been effective, but the phenomena which have been underlined in the directive have been so massive that despite the contribution of technocrat ministers, they led to the deformation and the manipulation of the final result. Meanwhile, he says that crime and drug money were decisive for these elections.
New engagement
The directive also states that although the DP participated in the drafting of the electoral reform, this was not enough. “This reform will be an extraordinary contribution, but it will not be enough to guarantee free and fair elections, if we are not involved in activities which aim at protecting votes”, the DP’s directive says.
Basha and Ristani say that “we will draft and implement an internal strategy against the sale of vote, which must contain a concrete action plan to prevent any attempts to alienate the votes”.
Basha’s opponents
“The 2017 election result must be read in an honest way, by taking all measures to remedy all shortcomings and give more faith and hope to Albanian people”. This is the first sentence of the directive on the analysis within the DP. The following sentence requires “the identification of internal problems which appeared in the 2017 general elections and the concrete steps taken to correct them”.
This is the extent of the personal responsibility of the leadership of the Democratic Party for the defeat in the elections. And this is responsibility what Lulzim Basha’s opponents within the Democratic Party insisted on, when they requested him to step down once the election result came out.
But where are the people who voted against the current chairman of the DP or those who have publicly voiced their opponents against him, in this process?
It seems that chairman Basha has decided to include them in the new structures and trust them with an important role in the process of analysis. Such opponents, members of the leading structures are now part of the list of work groups in the DP branches in Tirana, in the role of coordinators or delegates.
One of the members of the National Committee, Edith Harxhi, former minister of Foreign Affairs, told Albanian Free Press that she has learned about her appointment as part of the work groups through the DP organizational office, but she is not clear about her role in this analysis. “This is an analysis which I don’t have lots of information on, because it hasn’t been submitted to the National Committee as the highest decision making instance of the party, which has never convened.” But how does she see her name in the work groups along with other DP officials who have publicly come out against Lulzim Basha? Is this an attempt to unite different factions within the DP?
Edith Harxhi says that she backs any incentive for all-inclusiveness, because she wants the unification of the Democratic Party. But, she doesn’t believe that such analysis will identify the people who are responsible for the electoral defeat.
The member of the Democratic Party’s leading structures, Jamarber Malltezi, sees this analysis as a positive process, but he believes that it should be followed with other moves.
Asked by Albanian Free Press about the appointment of Basha’s opponents as part of the work groups, Malltezi says that each party which is looking to come to power, aims at uniting all factions that exist within it. “All members of the National Committee will be part of the work groups, because this is how the party functions and they cannot be left out”, Malltezi says.
An old strategy?
After the 2013 elections, a tense situation broke out between democrats gathered around Basha and Olldashi. But this situation calmed following Olldashi’s death, however, it came back when Lulizm Basha recently ran for a new term in office as party leader against his other rival, Eduard Selami. A part of Basha’s opponents regrouped around Astrit Patozi.
Four years ago, Lulzim Basha chose the strategy of inclusion for “Olldashi’s people”, who had remained without a leader, in the new structures of the Democratic Party, promoting himself as a leader who doesn’t “hold any grudges”. However, in 2017, he didn’t include these people in the list of candidates for parliament.
