The issues with Berisha's and Meta's coalition

The leadership of the Freedom Party has asked the Central Elections Institution to recognize Sali Berisha as leader of the coalition instead of Ilir Meta. Aware of their hopeless situation and taking into account the fact that Meta’s name would on ballot as leader of the coalition, they decided to accept Sali Berisha as the lesser evil.

Now, what is this phobia that Berisha’s Democrats feel towards Ilir Meta? From a political perspective, this comes as the realization of the aversion that Berisha’s supporters have towards Meta. While the alliance is Berisha’s and Meta’s strategy to solve their personal issues, this is not reflected in their base of supporters. In other words, this is an alliance of leaders, an occult deal between two individuals who have found themselves in deep trouble and seek to use the electoral campaign in order to survive politically. Logically, the alliance is dominated by Sali Berisha as he is accepted by Meta’s minority, whereas the latter is unacceptable by Berisha’s majority. On the other hand, the fact that Berisha does not have his party, forces him to perform such political pirouettes and hand over the identity of his faction to Ilir Meta.

From a legal standpoint, the request of the Freedom Party is completely baseless. Despite Ilirjan Celibashi’s attempt to distract the representatives of the Freedom Party by referring to the coalition agreement as it was defined by Sali Berisha, the situation remains quite clear. According to the electoral code, the members of a coalition must declare which is the leading party and from there, the name of the head of the leading party is written in the ballot.

Sali Berisha is not a political party, but rather a political community. He does not have an official logo or a seal. While he hoped to forcefully get the Democratic Party’s symbols, he lost the case in court. Therefore, he represents a political community that lacks legal representation. Legally, Sali Berisha and his candidates are represented only by the coalition with Ilir Meta and Vangjel Dule.

Even if the head of CEC has not yet nullified Sali Berisha’s presence as leader of a political party, this can be easily done by the Complaints and Sanctions Commission. If Berisha’s candidates are too embarrassed to be represented by Ilir Meta’s name in the ballots, they could just declare that Vangjel Dule’s party is the leading party of coalition. However, they cannot have Berisha’s name as he does not exist anywhere as a legal political party.

Aware of this fact, Berisha and Meta have also requested from the Complaints and Sanctions Commission to remove the logos of all political parties from the ballots. According to this principle, since voters despise their coalition’s logo, they want all other political parties not to have their logos in the ballot either. Their main concern is that voters might be more attracted to the Democratic Party’s logo and hence vote for it. However, the change requested by the Freedom Party requires the change of the electoral code and is not simply a decision that can be taken by the Central Elections Commission or the Electoral College.

The aversion that Democrats feel towards Ilir Meta’s name or the coalition’s logo is the result of Berisha’s personal bargain with Meta. He decided to forge this coalition only to save himself. Now, their coalition resembles to the husband who marries for immigration purposes and once he achieves what he wanted, he seeks to end the marriage. However, things are not as simple, since even such marriages have their own costs.