Albania Opposition to Deploy ‘Army of Supporters’ for Poll

A lawmaker from the Socialist Party has told Balkan Insight that an organised group of activists, backed by former ministry of interior officers, will be deployed during the May 8 poll to prevent fraud by rival political gangs.

Aristir Lumezi

Tirana

Socialist activists in yellow armbands carry out crowd control during a rally on January 28 in Tirana | Photo by : Besar Likmeta

“A number of election observers, young people that can handle any physical or verbal threat, will be deployed to guarantee the electoral process in every polling station,” a Socialist MP told Balkan Insight on condition of anonymity.

Another official from the Socialist Party said that, similar to the 2007 local elections, the party has created “a structure made of former officers of the ministry of interior, now relieved of duty, to support and protect the Socialist commissioners during the polls.”

“In the past elections this structure intervened on two or three occasions when Socialist poll commissioners were threatened,” the source specified.

Election commissioners in Albania are stationed at all of the country's polling stations on voting day, and are tasked with checking identity cards, receiving ballots, and observing the voting process. Commissioners are chosen by the country's main political parties.

The May elections are seen as a key test of Albania’s democratic credentials following a violent anti-government rally on January 21 that left four protestors dead and has since been the source of a heated dispute between the opposition and the ruling party.

Apart from the groups of observers, the Socialists so far have indentified Albanian migrants living abroad for every polling station, in order to prevent their vote from appearing fraudulently on ballots.

“Through a network of supporters that have gone door-to-door, we have prepared a database of the migrants that live abroad and will be present in Albania on election day,” the Socialist MP said.

The Socialists believe that the database will act as a “barricade to block the fictional voting,” of migrants during the May 8 elections.

Socialist leaders have often accused the ruling majority of Prime Minister Sali Berisha of using fraudulent votes of Albanian migrants living abroad to tip the electoral balance in the contested June 2009 parliamentary elections.

According to Socialist officials, they have also been more careful in selecting their election commissioners for the polling stations, after some of them were allegedly compromised through bribes in 2009.

“In every polling station in Tirana, the Socialists will have a trusted commissioner appointed by opposition leader Edi Rama, one commissioner appointed by the local borough head and another by Socialist structures,” the MP confirmed.

Tirana is considered a key battleground on May 8. The Socialist leader Rama will face off against former minister of interior Lulzim Basha for the mayor's seat.

“The moral integrity, faithfulness to the Socialist leader and a complete knowledge of election procedures, will be the guarantees that the Socialists will have in their election commissioners,” the MP added.