The municipality of Cerrik is heading towards by-elections on Sunday, November 9, but there is no enthusiasm in the city center. Among a group of pensioners, a few young people and vigilant municipal workers, the electoral climate is experienced more as a curiosity.
"It's not that we have any great enthusiasm. We want whoever wins to deal with city affairs, with roads, with cleanliness and with employment, because there is a lot of unemployment," says Arjani, 42, owner of a grocery store near the center, who has not yet made even 1,000 lek in turnover.
The Municipality of Cerrik consists of the city of Cerrik, a former industrial center, and the municipalities of Gostimë, Mollas, Shales and Klos. The municipality has about 38 thousand citizens with the right to vote, but in the 2023 local elections, only 12 thousand voters participated.
Cerrik was added to the map of six municipalities without a mayor in September this year, after Prime Minister Edi Rama selected Andis Salla as the new Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Three candidates are running for the position left vacant by him; Florenc Doka from the Socialist Party, Amarildo Hoxha, a doctor by profession who is supported by the Democratic Party, and Eligert Hima, a candidate from “Albania Becomes”.
The socialist candidate, Florenc Doka, enters the race with the full support of the party structures and represents the continuity of the current administration. He emphasizes the need to finish "initiated projects" - while assessing the poverty, lack of hope and fatigue of the electorate as challenges.
Doka told BIRN that the campaign has continued peacefully and that he has decided not to engage in what he considered a "campaign of defamation and insults of the electorate."
"In a small community like Cerriku, it is important to give the message of a campaign away from the noise of big politics, without taking imported examples, why not give the example of a different campaign, where people are talked to and problems are programmed to be solved..." he said.
Doka is accused by opposing candidates of using the local administration for campaigning, but he claimed that "municipal affairs are what is usually done, regardless of the campaign."
Unlike Doka, physician Amarildo Hoxha is running for mayor with the goal of breaking the boundaries of traditional politics. Although supported by the Democratic Party, Hoxha is maintaining an independent profile to attract disillusioned voters.
Hoxha told BIRN that he is entering this race to return the municipality that has been held hostage for more than a decade. However, Hoxha sees the campaign as an opportunity to communicate with citizens about a new alternative.
"I do not enter politics to divide people, but to unite them around a common goal: an honest, efficient and citizen-friendly local government," he said.
Facing two other candidates, Eligert Hima from "Albania Becomes" has led a denunciation campaign on unfulfilled promises, living conditions, and missing investments in the Municipality of Cerrik.
Hima comes from emigration and is competing with the motto "Beyond the Fadas".
"We are exposing all the unresolved issues to the citizens of the Municipality of Cerrik, in order to give them an alternative on how we can solve these problems. On the other hand, we continue house-to-house meetings, as well as with the structures, which continue their work on the ground, but without being used as electoral makeup," he said.
According to him, the majority is seeking to maintain power by covering up its failures with "a little electoral asphalt."
"The citizens of Cerrik are looking for real change and a dedicated man," he further emphasized.
Citizens want change
The municipality of Cerrik lies in a gently rolling area between the Shkumbin and Devoll Rivers in central Albania. Cerrik gained city status in 1952 after the construction of an oil refinery – a nearby military airport and a power plant serving the refinery were the main sources of employment for the town’s residents.
After the closure of the industry in the late 1980s, the city suffers from poverty and a significant portion of the population has abandoned it. Meanwhile, a sensitive Egyptian minority community faces even greater challenges.
According to Behije Balla, an activist for the rights of the Egyptian community who is best known as Zeka, members of the community face a lack of health services, investment, and unemployment.
"The roads need to be significantly improved, because as you have seen, our neighborhood has many problems. Our houses are unregistered, young people are unemployed. There are many things that need to be improved for our community and every mayor who comes should also look at us," said Balla.
Another sensitive category in Cerrik are pensioners, who seem to have lost faith in politics.
In the central square of Cerrik, one of them says he has no intention of voting, as "elections don't change anything."
“Why should I vote when my vote has made no difference?” said the old man. “We have the same miserable pensions, the youth just leave and here you only find old people,” he added.
Even the few young people in Cërrik are skeptical, who are still looking for new alternatives.
Ina, a student in Tirana who returns every weekend to her family in Cërrik, says she would like a different policy.
"I don't know him very well, but I like the idea of someone coming out of the big parties and telling things as they are. At least trying to bring something different," she emphasized.
For many citizens, however, the question is no longer who wins, but whether anything will change after November 9th.
"We have seen many elections, but very little change. This time, we want someone who will listen to us, not just ask for our votes," says a woman in the center of Cerrik. /BIRN/
