Weekly Briefing, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Al), September 2020
Constitutional changes in times of pandemic
On July 30th, Albania became the first European country in 2020 that is implementing constitutional changes in the heights of COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to taking their summer holidays, the Members of the Parliament (MP) approved a much controversial amendment to the Constitution. Representatives of the Socialist majority and those of the parliamentary opposition unanimously approved the amendments to two different articles. These changes aim to stop pre-election coalitions between different political parties and increase the necessary threshold of votes that a party must receive to enter the Parliament from 3% to 5% of the total national counts. The changes also promise to give voters the opportunity to like and consequently elect some of the party-nominated MPs. With these changes 2/3 of the representatives are elected directly within the proposed party lists but by the voters themselves, while 1/3 remain in the hands of the parties (precisely their leaders). With an impressive 106 votes in favor and 10 against, Prime Minister Edi Rama passed the constitutional changes in the Parliament with the new opposition, although they did not have the consent of Democratic Party (PD) and the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI).
The race to the next elections and issues at stake
The last general elections were held in Albania in 2017 – the Socialist Party (PS) led by Edi Rama, was reconfirmed as the party in power for other four years. Those elections however, were not held without heated internal debate. Even though the leaders of the two main parties had a deal prior to the elections, afterwards antagonism started again with allegation of vote tampering and irregularities of the process.
In order to smooth down potential future scenarios like the ones of 2017, the majority party has decided to implement changes on the same electoral process – these desired changes however would require constitutional revision. What was required and after confirmed from the Socialists was a partial opening of the lists and a new formula for coalitions. Within the Albanian Parliament 94 votes were enough for these changes, but with the consent of the parliamentary opposition, 106 votes were obtained. According to the majority representatives, the opening of the lists of not less than 2/3 of them will be left to the discussions on the Electoral Code that will take place after the changes in the Constitution. The PS stated that these changes do not affect the pre-election coalitions which will have to be created already in a new way from the past. These amendments were approved without agreement with the opposition outside Parliament, despite marathon meetings of the Political Council. In a very self-flattering speech in the Parliament, on the day of the voting, PM Rama praised the outcome as historical and as the best implementation of the principle of regional proportional system, which strengthens the voters influence in the selection of candidates. On the other hand the opposition outside the system PD and LSI, declared that this the unilateral constitutional changes destroy the consensus reached in prior deal and will have serious consequences for the future stability of the country.
There is debate in the political circles of the country whether this was an arbitrary action taken in a difficult situation for Albania – indeed, the surging of new cases of COVID-19 has shifted the public attention on health issues rather than politics. Besides the timing, which is non-appropriate given that much more pressing issues need management and prompt addressing, the very bases of such actions have many flaws.
The Constitution should not be a political product; interventions in it should be comprehensive and widely consulted with experts and interest groups in order to provide guarantees for its longevity in time. When this occurs, the changes should reflect the real needs and not political interests. It is proper for the amendments to the Constitution to be widely approved and discussed – preferably by a popular referendum (Cit. Kirstaq Kume). As these changes address election-related issues, this way of deciding on a change bypassed the agreement reached between the political parties on the changes that need to be made in the electoral legislation. The attempt to address this issue with the same working methodology in the Political Council failed and as such, it cannot be considered that it carries with it the effort of all parties as committed to do so.
The dilemma of the opposition – history repeating
The Albanian actual opposition (PD-LSI) is out of the system by their own doing and volition. In the current situation, their state of affairs is more complicated than ever. With nine months left to the next general election, their action plan is missing or at least it is in a stall. By going out the system, they self-obliterated all possible paths to dialogue and impact. On August 25th 2020, the President of the Republic of Albania, Ilir Meta (it is important to be reminded here that the he is also the former leader of LSI) has decided not to sign on the constitutional amendments, but has quietly left the entry into force of the New Constitution. Despite the strong opposition that the President has to the changes that allowed the opening of the lists and the removal of pre-electoral coalitions. The President has considered the constitutional changes unacceptable, underlining that any interference in the fundamental law of the state should come through dialogue and not arbitrarily by the majority. The Constitutional amendments adopted on July 30th were not accepted within the PD and LSI ranks, but through an agreement signed with the parliamentary opposition and approved with 106 votes in favor. The “united” opposition has warned that it does not recognize these changes. Nevertheless, do they have the political or even moral grounds to do so? – In 2008, the same people that are now uttering words of disdain on such radical changes are the ones that crated a dangerous precedent, changing the Constitution within 24 hours.
The false promise of a fair and representative election
The manner in which the opening of the lists is determined in the Constitution, in principle, gives the possibility for the list to be 100% open. However, this only happens if the political party decides on such a path, and it is still unknown if this will be the case, maybe it is there to be as an option and will be used only if the circumstances of 2021 will seriously require it. The political controversy created in late July and continued throughout August centered on the opposition outside parliament and their accusations of non-involvement in the process. Going out of the Parliament since more than one year, seems to continue to produce negative effects for the PD-LSI and political costs that even they themselves might never have thought of. However, are these constitutional changes at the best interest of Albanians? Will the quality of managing the nation increase through these “new rules of the game”? What is the prognosis of these developments that culminated in the constitutional changes and a legal package for a better electoral process?
If we start from the point of view of the voter and the progress of the process to ensure that the true will of the people will be fulfilled in the ballot boxes – then open lists are not only the best solution but also a crucial necessity. If this approach of opening the lists belongs to narrow political/party interests and it is implemented because someone’s interests can be damaged in the next elections then these changes are not in the interest of the voters. Knowing that all the struggles between the parties in Albania are based on power grabbing and power holding, then very few trust the doctrines presented for these changes.
The party in power can make these changes as it has all the legal mechanisms in hand to do so, but it cannot sell them as the “will of the people”. Someone says that this is how the sovereignty of the people is being affected; someone says that these changes are not comprehensive. Within a society with so many structural problems in the last 30 years, the elections as such (be these of any nature) did not solve the crucial problems, consequently the main issues do not lay in the electoral process.
It has been proven by serious external and internal observers that by elections, even when those are widely accepted, the pending issues accumulated in the last three decades have not been resolved. Therefore, whatever the elections process and outcome will be, the political factors that are in play today, these people who lead the Albanian political parties are publicly consumed; so whatever they say is not convincing any longer. The existing political class with the existing performed, tried and failed (Cit. Perparim Kabo).
Conclusions
By all considerations this is a plan and a political win for Edi Rama, with this amendments he is projecting himself and his party to a third term by actually paving the way one law at a time. The person that currently has in his hand decision-making fates of Albania, by these constitutional changes implemented achieved two major scores. First, with the open lists candidates he is trying the approach the much-alienated socialist base, the ones that he forgot for more than seven years in power and secondly, he is blocking the opposition to come as a united front in the electoral process. Only June 2021 will reveal if this move was fruitful, in the meantime true socialist in Albania are not buying what Rama is selling.