Good evening!
As the Prime Minister of Albania, I would like to share with you my pride over these elections as the calmest, freest and fairest we have ever held.
On June 21st, Albania was a normal country going through an entirely normal election process free of serious problems from Tropoja to Konispol.
It was the first time for a government in the course of an electoral process in Albania to ensure that no schools were closed to send students and teachers cheering in the rallies held by the Prime Minister or the Speaker of the Assembly, an event that was common until 2013;
We managed to prevent any servant in the administration from being forced to line up by way of lists and signatures and roll-calls, as the case was until 2013.
We succeeded in thwarting any pressure on state employs to hand their ID card over or bring a snapshot of their ballot paper with them in the office on Monday, in order to keep their jobs, as it was frequent until 2013.
No army combat engineers were taken to throw layers of electoral gravel to collect votes in favour of the majority candidates, as the case used to be until 2013.
Police did not lend any support to the “strong of the village” to coerce voters on power’s behalf, as they did until 2013
Prison gates were not open to unleash infamous criminals on the houses of voters supporting the opponents, like it used to happen until 2013 and what’s most important, we prevented budget funds from being derailed into electoral investments as they usually were until 2013, in a governmental malpractice turned into a nightmare for international financial institutions and a cost exacted on Albanians on account of the partisan interests of people in government.
It would not be too much to recall that, until 2013, energy theft for electoral purposes was part of the power’s winning strategy. Not only did the Distribution Company allow, but it assisted people to install illegal energy connections as a voting trade-off. Reaching the peak in 2013, the company’s election-induced debt jumped up to $ 220 million at the expense of the Albanian people. This time, there was nothing like that happening and, regardless of any potential political cost, the financial toll on the company, that is, on the Albanian people, was zero.
On the same note, neither did we experience the traditional messing with State reserves used to trade poverty with beans and boots in return for votes, in a shameful display until 2013.
The very fact that the Government acted as a government of all Albanians, instead of behaving like a back-up division of the governing coalition, has been the exact reason why Albania emerged much worthier of the ambitions of it ordinary people, the citizens of this country, who deserve to elect freely and decide by their vote counted fairly.
This is the moment to ask from all those in charge of counting votes for municipal councils to keep doing their work with the same dignity and honesty invested in counting the candidate votes. The history of council elections has shown that there is a diversity of choice, since the vote going for councillors is not only political, but local, as well; not only partisan, but individual, too. This feature of the local election should be preserved intact at every counting table and each ballot cast for each party, no matter how small the latter or if unknown to anyone, has to be fairly counted, because it has succeeded in finding the right local candidates. The time where small parties were taken away votes on the table by counting members must be in the past we left behind this 21st of June. Those who think they can commit the fatal error of bringing that time back again to their counting tables, must not forget that the law shall punish them.
In addition, allow me to thank, in your name, the name of all Albanians, and express my gratitude to all local and international observes, the OSCE/ODIHR mission and, in particular, the US and European Union ambassadors, for their most precious contribution to a process so successful.
We shall not, however, rest on the laurels of this new success for Albania, but will consider every finding of the observation report with utmost attention and, subsequently, will address with full determination all recommendations contained in the final OSCE/ODIHR mission report.
That these elections were the best is not to be questioned, but there is room for further improvements, which we are resolute to enforce.
Last Sunday’s elections will remain of historic significance for two main reasons:
First, on the 21st of June, with the vote of 71% of the Albanians resident in the country, a new Albania is born, the Albania of next generation that no longer counts 400 meaningless local units, but 61 units of economic, urban and social development and hundreds of administrative service units for the citizens where communes used to be until recently. This is the new Albania of equal citizens, who the State organization does no longer divide into first-hand city-based citizens and second-hand village people.
Second, by the vote of 21 June, a full-fledged gender balance in local decision-making has turned into a fact, preparing the ground for a new emancipation era of co-existence in the community and, unquestionably, in the Albanian politics itself.
I am proud that the Alliance for European Albania has made these two historic changes possible, without even completing its second year of tenure.
The referendum urged by the Democratic Party against government reforms has seen a defeat even greater than thought of by almost everyone. But don’t expect us to beat the drums of victory over such referendum, as these were elections for the family, the women, for the village and every community, not for the Parliament or government of Albania. That is why both the Speaker of the Assembly and co-chair of the Alliance for European Albania and I did not campaign against the DP’s blind referendum, but to turn people’s attention to the true reasons of voting on 21 June. Moreover, I, myself, have not questioned at any moment the strong support of people for our reforms. I have not been waiting for 21 June to learn that Albanians want reforms to persist, so that we ultimately have our modern and serious State, but, in turn, I have not doubts that 21 June is a new impetus to deepen reforms and measures that follow with the greatest determination.
In these elections, the Albanian people assigned a new responsibility to the Alliance for European Albania. They strongly confirmed our alliance as the right direction. We have been asked to govern the highest number of local government that any other political party has ever been trusted with in free and fair elections; 75% of the unit in arithmetic terms and around 80% of the country’s population residing in these units.
It is very good news that 9 municipalities will be run by women, with 8 being candidates of the Alliance for European Albania, who I warmly congratulate over the deserved winning, the same as I congratulate heartedly the Democratic Party candidate in Shkodra.
We accept this enormous responsibility placed upon us with humbleness greater than two years ago towards every voter who invested in the candidates such an immense trust. I wish the Democratic Party joined us in continuing the Administrative and Territory Reform, so that, after the cornerstone laid by 21 June, we could, together with the opposition, place the other stones of the modern local government establishment in Albania. This is a fantastic momentum of a new beginning for the Albanian State that we cannot afford to lose. Albania has got no time to lose. Albanians support our reforms exactly because they do not want to waste more time than they already have for many years in the wrong direction. We must design by the end of this year the whole modernization package for the municipalities, which have to be a common house for communities in the true meaning of the word. That would imply true decentralization instead of fragmentation and division that shamed the State and caused endless troubles for the citizens during all these years in the name of decentralization.
We must walk together with the opposition on the path leading to such strategic goal for the Albanian State, but, have no doubt; we will stick to this direction, even if the opposition is reluctant to join.
Now, I would like to address everyone in my capacity as the Prime Minister you elected exactly two years ago, on the 23d of June, but also as a man who in two years has been feeling the burden of your exceptionally high expectation through his every cell.
Your confirmation of such expectation in these elections has been a thrilling message to me, not only because you went so many to vote our alliance, but also because you participated numerous in a process of local elections that, two years after government voting, tends to mark significant fall in turnout in Albania and everywhere else.
You have to believe me that I have not even managed to relish a single moment of this great victory, because with polls closing I realized the immense capital of trust you have invested in us again, no matter how heavy is the burden of unemployment, the burden of poverty or the everyday helplessness among many of you. I can’t rejoice, as I cannot forget for a single minute that what is victory to politicians, to those who vote is an investment, the return of which they often expect anxiously, with impatience.
I cannot revel in the moment, as I am not able to forget – actually, something I can’t forget for two and even more years – from Sunday afternoon how many of you wake up in the morning with the shadow of poverty hanging over your head or turn home with the bitter taste of humiliation after in some offices or service shops someone asked you to pay a bribe in change for a piece of document or cry over another day wasted unemployed, or despair over a delinquent judge who stripped you off your property or suffer for lack of water to irrigate that makes the labours of an entire year useless or are upset because your child is in the hands of an unworthy teacher or feel frustrated at seeing how easily comes the job to someone and how much more difficult it is for the right man to come to the job somewhere else.
I am well aware of, but even more so, I strongly feel the pain of those among you who could have even not gone to vote this 21 June, to remind us, to remind me, although I am not a magician, how many things are yet to be done from 23 June of two years ago. However, the fact of you going to polls in such high numbers elicits a humble enormous thank you for this immense support and encouragement, even more so after reforms and operations as painful as those we have undertaken.
There is great meaning in such support for me, since it shows that in this laborious endeavour to bring Albania out of the mud and agony we are in many, we stand all together and resolute.
I want you to know that the depth of my respect for you is beyond words, the same as my understanding is complete for all those people in the country who do not favour this hard path, although supported so widely for being the right one.
However, I would say to all of you together that this is the right direction for the good of our country which is, above anything, the country of our children.
I will continue to do everything I can, heart and soul, without ever betraying you, to bring as close a possible the day where all those who gave us their trust again to walk faster in the right direction will feel proud, because they were part in this hard effort of our common history to make sure that the Albania our children deserve is reborn.
Much grateful and humbled,
Thank you!
