Smaller parties in Albania believe that the country's two main political forces have suddenly agreed to cooperate on electoral reform in order to manipulate the system and maintain their dominance.
Albania's two largest parties, Edi Rama's ruling Socialist Party and Sali Berisha's opposition Democratic Party, are fierce rivals who miss no opportunity to denigrate each other's motives and honesty.
Therefore, it was a surprise last week when they took an important step towards cooperation on electoral reform, voting to establish two special commissions.
These will operate on a two-party Socialist-Democratic basis and the decision to establish them was supported by both parties in a parliamentary vote.
The only ones who voted against were the MPs from the smaller, younger parties that won seats in parliament for the first time in the May elections – Agron Shehaj and Erald Kapri from the Opportunity Party, as well as Redi Muçi from the Together Movement.
Kapri and Muçi told BIRN that they consider this cooperation harmful to small parties and that it is the result of an agreement between Rama and Berisha to strengthen their hegemony over Albanian politics.
In 2024, on the eve of the general elections in May of that year, the ruling and main opposition parties agreed to amend the electoral code to create a hybrid formula for the lists of parliamentary candidates from which voters could choose.
They decided on a mix of “closed” lists, where voters choose a party but not individual candidates, and “open” lists, where voters can choose the candidate they prefer. In “closed” lists, parties decide for themselves who will be MPs, if the party receives enough votes.
Smaller parties had demanded “open” lists but were ignored. However, the limited reform allowed them to win several seats in a parliament dominated by the two main parties since the fall of the communist regime.
The new parties fear that their concerns will be overlooked again when the new changes are implemented.
“The major parties have united again to make changes that will only serve to strengthen their power and make democracy and representation more difficult,” Kapri of the Opportunity Party told BIRN.
Political analysts also say that the agreement between the major parties is more about protecting the status quo than bringing about a real change to the electoral system that would benefit voters.
Prime Minister Rama signaled in September that one of the changes would be to reduce the number of MPs, saying that 140 is too many for a small country like Albania. This idea is also supported by Berisha.
"Reducing the number of members of the Assembly to at least 101, or even less, would only have a positive impact. Therefore, this change should be our objective and coincides with the will of our voters," Rama said.
But Kapri argues that major constitutional changes should not be decided by key stakeholders behind closed doors.
"Constitutional changes without debate and transparency, to reduce the number of MPs, are a direct blow to the new alternatives that on May 11th for the first time challenged the capture of the system by the two major parties, which have governed one of the most corrupt countries in Europe for more than three decades," he said.
He called the consensus among the largest parties to establish special commissions for electoral reform a sham, as both the Socialists and Democrats will retain the right to veto the commissions' decisions.
"We refused to become part of the special commission because we see it as a political farce, as long as the major parties have the right to veto," he said.
Recommendations for fairer elections
The May elections were convincingly won by the Socialists, but the leader of the Democratic Party, Berisha, has refused to accept the results as fair, claiming that “the ruling party stole the elections” with the help of criminal groups.
This is why many were surprised by his agreement to begin cooperation with the Socialists on electoral reform. Asked about this, Berisha referred to recent recommendations from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, and its election observers.
"We voted today to establish these two commissions for two fundamental reasons. First, there is an endless series of recommendations from the OSCE/ODIHR, which we have accepted and consider important," Berisha said after the vote.
The final report of OSCE/ODIHR observers on the May general elections emphasized that the electoral legal framework should be comprehensively reformed through an “inclusive consultative process” well in advance of the next elections, to guarantee fairness.
The Together Movement was offered a seat on the new commission, but its MP, Redi Muçi, is skeptical about what can be achieved.
"Of course, we will use this platform to speak to citizens with our concrete proposals for electoral and territorial reform, where we will pay special attention to the law on party financing, the role of the media in election campaigns, the depoliticization of voting and vote counting commissioners, as well as the law on national and local referendums," he told BIRN.
However, he added: “Of course, we do not expect these suggestions to be taken into consideration by the two old parties.”
“As they have publicly stated, the agreement between Edi Rama and Sali Berisha lies in the fact that they will reduce the number of deputies in the Assembly, making it more difficult for the so-called 'small' parties to be represented.”
Real change or consolidation of power?
Albanian analysts agree that an agreement between the two largest parties could harm smaller parties and perhaps even democracy itself.
“Electoral and territorial reform are two fundamental pillars of democracy, but if they are designed by the same architects who built today's system, the question that arises is: will the change be only cosmetic or radical? Will all OSCE/ODIHR recommendations for elections be addressed in a timely manner?” asked political analyst Lutfi Dervishi.
“The fact that small parties have been excluded from the table is a clear indication that the 'reform' is being launched more as a project to preserve the status quo than to open up the political game,” he told BIRN.
Rigels Xhemollari, from the Tirana-based non-governmental organization “Civic Stability,” which focuses on democracy and transparency, told BIRN that “it is important to address the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and not the schemes of the major parties to maintain their power and status.”
He noted that the recommendations offer concrete advice for improving the electoral process, “ranging from the depoliticization of electoral bodies to harsh sanctions for misuse of public administration.”
However, he concluded: “Apparently, the major parties are not interested in these solutions, because they would lose control over the process and their influence on it, and therefore this would benefit the new forces.”/BIRN/
