Sali Berisha seems to have second thoughts about his push for voting rights for the Albanian diaspora and is now looking for a way out. His only option is to reject the amendment to the law that sets deadlines for submitting votes.
Although he agrees with the principle of diaspora voting, he keeps coming up with new excuses to justify its failure. This week, he proposed allowing Albanians abroad to vote with foreign identification documents. To make this seem more reasonable, he claims that without this change, nearly one million Albanians abroad would be unable to vote in the May 11 elections.
However, according to official sources from Albania’s Central Election Commission (CEC), only about 150,000 Albanians who left the country after 1991 and haven’t applied for Albanian identification documents. These people have largely distanced themselves from Albania and aren’t interested in obtaining Albanian documents.
On the other hand, the legal system that the Democratic Party has supported doesn’t allow people without Albanian biometric documents to vote. If the only criterion for voting was Albanian descent, even the Arberesh community in Italy, who have lived there since the Middle Ages, would qualify to vote.
Berisha is raising these points to put pressure on stopping the legal changes that would enable the diaspora to vote, but he will eventually approve them. For him, it’s not about winning votes—it is about legitimizing the claims of election fraud.
What Berisha is really after is finding reasons to explain his expected loss and why the elections won’t be fair. While the diaspora voting process may risk familiarity or exposure of voters’ identities, this is the standard the DP has agreed to. To further discredit the elections, Berisha will likely hold protests at Albanian embassies abroad, since he can't gather enough supporters among the diaspora.
If it were up to him, Berisha would have blocked diaspora voting altogether. But now, it’s too late to reverse his position, and his bluff has failed. So, he will try to use this process to discredit the elections. Winning is no longer his focus—he’s long given up on that.
The article initially appeared in Albanian titled: "Berishës nuk i duhen votat e diasporës, por përdorimi i diasporës për të njollosur zgjedhjet"
Lini një Përgjigje