Prime Minister Edi Rama secured a fourth term after his Socialist Party won Albania's elections on Sunday, official results showed yesterday. The opposition claims the vote was rigged.
With 96 percent of the vote counted, the Socialist Party had 52 percent of the vote and 82 seats in the 140-seat parliament. Its main opposition rival, Salih Brishe's center-right Democratic Party, won 34 percent of the vote and 52 seats.
If confirmed, the results would expand the Socialist Party's majority and give Rama a comfortable lead to form a government. It would also allow him to continue efforts to fulfill his promise of Albania joining the European Union by 2030, although many experts believe that timeframe is too optimistic given the reforms needed, especially when it comes to rooting out corruption.
"This is the most humbling experience of my life and comes at a historic moment for Albania... as a future member of the European Union," Rama told the Politiko portal.
International observers have questioned the regularity of the elections, and Albania's special prosecutor's office said it was investigating 39 election-related cases, mostly related to vote buying, Reuters reported. It did not specify which parties were under suspicion.
Berisha, a former president and prime minister, rejected the election results and called for a protest on May 16th, the day leaders from across Europe are due to gather for a summit in Tirana.
"We will never accept these elections - never," Berisha said at a press conference yesterday, making allegations of irregularities but without publicly presenting evidence.
Berisha continued the harsh rhetoric characteristic of the election campaign, calling Rama a "narco-dictator." In a statement to Reuters, Rama's party rejected the allegations of election fraud and called Berisha "an old, hopeless former communist politician."
The 2024-year-old Berisha claims that Albania is nowhere near ready for EU membership. The former personal physician to the late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, a cardiologist by profession, ran a campaign modeled on the American one, overseen by consultants brought in from Washington, including Chris Lacivita, the Republican election strategist who engineered Donald Trump's return to power in XNUMX. Berisha's campaign promoted the slogan "Make Albania Great Again," the Guardian reminds us.
However, that did not help him shake Rama.
"Hiring Lacivita and thinking you can become Trump is like hiring a Hollywood hairdresser and thinking you can become Brad Pitt," Rama said.
Rama (60), known for his presence on social media, on Monday posted photos and messages from the European House in Tirana, where the European Political Community summit is being intensively prepared, Politiko reported.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are coming to Albania for the sixth edition of the summit, an initiative launched by French President Emmanuel Macron to bring together EU and non-EU countries to discuss security, economic cooperation and regional stability. The summit will also include representatives from EU candidate countries such as Ukraine and Georgia.
"It is a great honor to welcome our entire democratic continent to Tirana - including Ukraine and my dear friend Volodymyr Zelensky," said Rama.
Rama, who has been in power since 2013, was the favorite in these elections, thanks in part to the influential network he built during 12 years in power, a recent period of stable economic growth, but also a deeply divided opposition, according to Reuters.
Just two days before the vote, Rama pardoned all fines the government had issued from 2015 to 2024, including those for traffic violations, illegal construction, and violations of health and safety regulations at work. The government did not disclose the total amount of the pardoned fines, but the opposition claims it is 200 million euros.
Still, the scale of the victory surprised some analysts who expected corruption scandals and recent unrest to erode Rama's lead.
Instead, a convincing victory could prolong a sense of political stability in Albania, unlike countries like Kosovo, Serbia and Bulgaria, where ruling parties have been hit by political crises over the past year, Reuters points out.
"Nobody expected a qualified majority for one party. It's like (Hungarian Prime Minister) Orban in his best days," said political analyst Lutfi Dervishi.
Rama has gained Western support by accepting migrants from Italy and housing Afghans waiting for visas to the US.
But voters in Albania accuse him of governing through a system of clientelism, neglecting to combat unemployment and corruption, including allegations that Albanian criminal gangs launder money from drugs and weapons in the country. Since he came to power, hundreds of thousands of Albanians have emigrated in search of better living conditions.
The Democratic Party blames the election outcome on, as it states, the deep roots of the Socialist Party in institutions and attempts to influence voters.
"If tens of thousands of people are promised jobs in exchange for their votes... if polling stations are surrounded by party supporters... we know what to call these elections," Berisha said.
Politiko reported that the Democratic Party hired Trump strategist Lacivita to design the campaign and shape the messaging. He reinforced Berisha's claims of manipulation, sharing on the X network a report by local broadcaster Syri TV about an alleged Socialist vote-buying office near a polling station in Tirana.
"This is what vote theft looks like in Albania... thanks to Edi Rama's narco-government," Lačivita wrote.
An international election observation mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) found that the campaign had witnessed "abuse of public resources and institutional power by the ruling party." There were also numerous reports of pressure on public sector employees and other voters, as well as cases of intimidation, Reuters reported.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kalas and EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said that the parliamentary elections in Albania were generally "inclusive and transparent" but also pointed out that they were held in a "highly polarized environment in which candidates did not enjoy a level playing field", the European External Action Service (EEAS) reported.
However, for Rama, the most important thing was the mood of the voters.
"They sent a strong and simple message: 'We want to finally reach the heights of the European Union - and we can only do that with you and the Socialist Party!'"
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