European Forum

Socialists’ statement on unofficial results of parliamentary poll in Albania

After unofficial results were announced of the parliamentary poll held on 28 June in Albania, the Socialist Party of Albania (SPA) declared it will not recognise them if the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) does not count the remained ballot boxes from the region of Fier, as was stated by SPA’s chairman Edi Rama. The CEC has yet to release the official results there as a result of political pressure on the vote counting process. Preliminary results suggest the SP got nine seats, followed by the ruling Democratic Party (DP) with six. The SP's claims are based on the CEC’s decision not to count the votes in some small election centres, which, the SP says, would secure them the ninth seat. The CEC is also working to complete work in Vlora and Elbasan.

“Sali Berisha must give up his plan, if he does not want the SPA not to recognize the elections,” Rama declared during a press conference held after a meeting of the SPA Presidency. “The ninth mandate in Fier is a mandate granted to SPA by the simple people and there is no force on earth which can take this mandate from the Fieri people, taking it from the SPA,” – Rama said. Rama also welcomed the act of the citizens of Fier for coming out in the square to protect standards. "I hail all those citizens for protecting their votes. There are not municipality employees or municipal policemen. Thanking them, I want to ask all not to become prey of systematical provocations of the state structures," – Rama said considering their actions as a normal act and an important contribution to protect the votes

He also said it was not a question of numbers, but a fundamental principle of democracy. “A theft is a theft even when it is about 1, 10 or 100 mandates,”- Rama stated. "To us it is important that the process should be transparent," he added.

Reacting on the decision of the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) to join the ruling coalition, Rama stated “Ilir Meta’s (LSI's chairman) double standard came to surface in a dimension not foreseen by anyone. Unfortunately, 83,000 citizens who voted for Ilir Meta to remove Sali Berisha were turned into a commodity sold by Mr Meta to buy seats in the shameful government, which is being set up on the basis of this accord,” – Rama declared. Rama said the SPA was the number one political force in Albania. “As such we are aware of our responsibilities,” he said.

On the other hand, he lashed out at Berisha for what he called the repressive measures of his power against those regions where the SPA has been declared as winner. “People are being fired although the final result is not declared yet,” he said.

According to still unofficial results, the ruling Democratic Party's (DP) right-wing ‘Alliance for Change’ coalition won 70 seats in parliament. SP's coalition secured 66 seats, followed by the LSI with four seats. The DP fell one seat short of taking the reins, as 71 seats are required to form a government in the 140-seat National Assembly. Therefore, the DP, extended a hand to the LSI -a split from the SP- and the two parties joined forces on 4 July, after which the DP declared itself as the winner of the poll. The CEC has not yet announced its official results. Due to several cases of conflict, the official results may be far off.


Sources: Socialist party; SETimes