Tensions Grow on Eve of Albania Election Campaign

The shootings of two low level officials in the weeks before the May 8 local elections has further deteriorated Albania's tense political climate.

Besar Likmeta

Tirana

Albanian police at Tirana crime scene| Photo by : Besar Likmeta

In the most recent incident, the head of Tirana’s Construction Inspectorate, Ardit Kaja, was shot and wounded in front of the municipality building in the city’s central Skenderbej square on Monday morning.

According to local media reports, Kaja’s car was hit several times by an assailant on a motorbike shooting a pistol with a silencer.

The chief inspector was at the centre of a confrontation on Sunday with activists from the junior government partner, the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, over a number of party flags that were posted on Tirana’s streets.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Albania opposition leader Edi Rama addressed the shooting.

“A public servant has been wounded who faced the violence of a political party that with money stolen from Albanians has polluted our city,” said Rama, referring to the flags incident as the motive for the crime.

The LSI responded in a statement expressing concern over the Kaja shooting, and calling on Rama, who is the current mayor of Tirana, to tone down his rethoric.

“The LSI denounces this crime and calls on Albania’s law enforcement institutions to investigate it as soon as possible,” said LSI deputy head for Tirana, Blerina Kazaferi.

“We call on the mayor to keep his cool and to wait for the investigation and not act as both a cop and a prosecutor,” Kazaferi added.

Kaja’s shooting was the latest of a string of incidents over the past week, which included at least one other shooting.

A candidate for the Demochristian League, in the municipality of Balldre in northern Albania was shot and wounded on Saturday.

Several other incidents, including the shooting of a Democratic Party candidate and an alleged exchange of fire between two candidates in the Dibra region, are said to have been motivated by political disputes and the election campaign, but no evidence has yet established a connection.

Although there is no evidence to suggest the victims were targeted because of their official or party positions, they add to the already tense political climate between Albania’s majority and opposition before the May 8 local elections.

The 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.

The protest of January 21 turned into a riot when several hundred anti-government protesters attacked the police barricade set up to protect the prime minister’s office, using sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails.

Police responded with tear gas, water cannons and later with live ammunition fire.

The recent tension between Rama’s Socialists and the ruling majority of Prime Minister Berisha has aggravated an already poisoned political climate, which has been in a troubled state since the disputed June 2009 parliamentary elections.

Berisha’s ruling Democratic Party and the Socialist opposition have been locked in a power struggle since the elections.

The Socialists allege that Berisha stole the elections through voter fraud, while the ruling majority rejects the accusations as baseless and maintains that the polls were the best the country has ever held.

The 2009 elections campaign was marked by a similar campaign of incidents, most notably the murder of Socialist MP Fatmir Xhindi, which remains unsolved.

Speaking to reporters on Monday after the incident, Albanian President Bamir Topi called on the country's political parties to behave in a civilized manner during the upcoming electoral campaign, which due to start on Friday.

“I want to appeal to everyone to begin the upcoming campaign in a civilized behavior, similar to the politics in the countries of the EU, which we aspire to join one day,” said Topi.