With the recent developments, anyone could raise a question: is Albania sliding back to chaos? The opposition pledges
to overthrow the government with popular protests, angry at the election commission’s decision to add uncounted votes to the vote total. The government says hold on and wait for final results. But both sides do not trust each other.
Tirana Times
TIRANA, May 18 – Opposition lawmakers decided to hold nationwide protests in an effort to topple the government.
Albanian opposition supporters and lawmakers scuffled with police at the Central Election Commission as protests spread across the country over a decision to add previously uncounted votes in a local election to the total. Protests were also being held in other towns, where hudnreds of people blocked highways.
The political tension led European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the bloc’s enlargement commissioner, Stefan Fuele, to cancel a trip to Tirana scheduled for Friday. They became furious at a decision by the Central Election Commission to allow previously uncounted votes in a local election to be added to the total.
Angry protesters scuffled with riot police. More than a dozen opposition lawmakers, who were joined by party supporters, climbed over a police cordon and entered the election commission building’s courtyard. There were scuffles with a second group of riot police, who held them back at the main entrance.
Hundreds of policemen, including those in riot gear, surrounded the commission’s building.An initial count in votes for Tirana mayor showed incumbent Edi Rama, leader of the opposition Socialists, ahead with a razor-thin lead of just 10 votes out of 250,623 ballots cast. He ran against Lulzim Basha, a former interior minister and member of the governing Democrat party.
The seven-member election commission voted 4-3 Wednesday to also include ballots for the mayoral race that had been cast into the wrong boxes during the May 8 local election. The process began later Wednesday.
The Socialists have called for protests to topple the government which, it said, was seeking to change the election results.
“Our only way is that of revolt,” Socialist party deputy leader Gramoz Ruci said.
Albania has been gripped by a political crisis for almost two years, with the opposition alleging corruption among the governing Democrats and accusing them of rigging the national elections in 2009. The crisis has led to occasional violent demonstrations in the small Balkan country of 4.2 millionנwith four opposition supporters being fatally injure in clashes with police in January. Prime Minister Sali Berisha has repeatedly rejected opposition calls for his resignation.
“We call on the people from this moment to come out and defend their vote,” Socialist lawmaker Fatmir Xhafaj said.
“There is no electoral system in this country, there could be no free and fair elections here,” said Genc Gjoncaj, representative of the Socialist Party at the commission.
Opposition lawmakers and supporters left the building once the commission began counting the wrongly cast ballots. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Berisha called on Rama to ensure his supporters moved away from the commission building, warning that otherwise “there will be extraordinarily grave consequences.”
On Tuesday, more than two dozen opposition supporters stormed the buildingנstopping a commission meeting being held inside. President Bamir Topi also tried to calm down the political wrangling. In a statement after he met with OSCE Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth and US Ambassador Alexander Arvizu, Topi stated that “under such circumstances the political sides should respect the institutions and independent institutions themselves should respect the law and the Constitution.”
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, U.S. and EU officials have all called for calm and urged all sides to exercise self-restraint. The U.S. Embassy warned its citizens to avoid the demonstration area.
