Elections as a step in the struggle towards social justice
Valuable lessons, however, can be drawn from this defeat.
The 580 votes collected by Elton Debreshi in the last elections were not the outcome that we – and thousands of supporters around Albania – were expecting and hoping for. Once again the oligarchy, through the three parties under its command, managed to exclude from the parliament the voice of the trade unionist mineworker who fights for workers’ and citizens’ rights and to dishearten our supporters during the electoral campaign.
Valuable lessons, however, can be drawn from this defeat.
1. The electorate in these elections was polarized among the two major parties, because for the first time in the pluralist history of elections in Albania a political party — Edi Rama’s Socialist Party (PS) — was aiming at a third consecutive governing mandate. This prompted a hefty part of the electorate to join the cries of the opposition leader – Lulzim Basha of Democratic Party (PD) — to vote for them in order to avoid what they call “the installation of a dictatorship”, whereas another part joined Edi Rama in his utterances that the “barbarians” would return to power unless PS wins. Therefore, according to them, every vote that would not go for either of these subjects was a wasted vote. In this regard, the third major party in Albania (LSI) that in the last elections in 2017 won 19 seats in Parliament, ended up with only 4 mandates. Of all the independent candidates (5 in total) that ran in these elections, Debreshi won the highest percentage of votes in proportion to the number of voters in his district (0.9%). He came 4th in Diber after the three main parties mentioned here.
2. The persuasive power of words and leading by example did not manage to come atop the influence of money and intimidation. A major scandal in these elections was the extent of the vote-buying practice. The money-laundering mechanism that usually conveys money from drug trafficking into the construction industry, it appears that during this campaign was channeled to the electorate, especially among the most destitute and hopeless part of the population. The bigger role was played by the party in power, although there are reports of the two other parties taking part. A controversial figure such as Tom Doshi (owner of the social-democratic party after buying it) who has been involved in major scandals and was declared non-grata even by the American Department of State, won two mandates in Shkodra and one in Tirana and he is set to enter government with Rama. Another factor was intimidation of those people who are employed in the local administration (or who have relatives working there). The public administration under Rama has been inflated to roughly 200.000 employees — an unprecedented number for Albania — whose personal and family votes are strictly monitored.
3. The largest number of votes for Elton Debreshi came from mineworkers from the region of Bulqiza and the surrounding villages. This result poses the challenge of working towards strengthening the trade union roots in the near future in order to solidify the mineworker and working-class identity. We must not forget that we were up against a mechanism of vote-buying and dividing workers into camps that have functioned for 30 years in Albania. Those 580 votes did not come from the “grey” electorate that has the luxury to boycott elections, but from voters who customarily have to align themselves in one of the political camps in order to slightly ameliorate their miserable condition. In these elections, we managed to divert them from their traditional allegiances in order to choose an honest candidate who derives from the working class and fights for workers’ rights. This, in itself, is not to be underestimated. 580 crosses under the name of Elton Debreshi are the votes of blood and sweat that have resisted the power of intimidation and money with admirable courage.
4. Albania today is controlled by a party that is intrinsically linked with the oligarchs and the underground organized crime. The formal opposition is politically dead, devoid of legitimacy, courage, and political imagination. This urgently poses the need for the creation of a wide social front among the subordinate classes and groups, at the forefront of which will be the workers and the trade unionist organization. The struggle for social rights must simultaneously be the struggle against oligarchy and for true democracy.
Engaging in this electoral campaign taught us a lot, gave us the opportunity to talk to thousands of people and to understand their problems. Furthermore, it strengthened our conviction that political engagement cannot be reduced to the voting day and slipping the ballot through the box; rather, it is a daily struggle for emancipation, it is the attempt to shake people off the general paralysis where they are reduced, which pushes them towards the PD-PS duality, and towards organizing and strengthening a new worker, trade unionist, and social identity.
The time of our Common Struggle will come through cooperation and organization!
For more follow us: