Analysis: Himara by-election raises concerns over 2025 national vote, relations with Greece
Story Highlights
- SP wins Himara mayoral race marred by voters not allowed to cast ballots due to expired IDs and government moving in Socialist supporters as new residents ahead of vote.
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TIRANA, Aug. 6, 2024 – Vangjel Tavo, the Socialist Party candidate, won the race for mayor of Himara in by-elections held on Sunday, defeating his rival Petraq Gjikuria of the opposition coalition by about 1,500 votes.
The results mark a significant shift in support in the municipality favor of Albania’s ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama, which had lost the mayorship in last year’s local elections when opposition coalition candidate Fredi Beleri, a representative of an ethnic Greek organization, won by a narrow margin of 19 votes over his Socialist incumbent rival.
Himara is a coastal municipality in southwestern Albania which has an ethnic Albanian majority and a sizable Greek-speaking population. It also has some of the most valuable coastal land and massive tourism development interests associated with its governance.
Opposition representatives have expressed concern that Sunday’s results were due to tactics aimed at favoring Albania’s ruling party, including denying thousands of voters the right to cast ballots due to having expired ID cards and by importing new residents into the municipality ahead of the elections so they could vote for the ruling party.
The reason the by-election had to take place was that Beleri had been arrested and convicted on charges of vote buying and was not allowed to take office.
Albania’s opposition and Greek authorities say Beleri’s arrest was politically motivated and had asked Albania for Beleri to be sworn in, something that was not allowed by Albanian courts. The Greek ruling party, New Democracy, then chose Beleri as a member of the European Parliament while he was in prison in Albania. The spat over Beleri has led to the deterioration of relations between the two countries and with Greece hampering progress in Albania’s EU membership bid.
With that contentious background, the by-election race turned into a national and international test, with both sides fielding candidates that are ethnically Greek.
-Results and candidate reactions-
According to official data from the Central Election Commission, after counting votes from 36 polling stations, Tavo received 5,022 votes, or 58.62 percent, compared to 3,545 votes, or 41.38 percent, for Gjikuria. Tavo lost the town of Himara itself but was able to win in the surrounding municipal units.
In a message on social media, Tavo expressed gratitude for the voters’ support and invited his rival to accept the position of deputy mayor, something rejected by Gjikuria. “I will lead by example with the cooperation and unity this municipality deserves,” Tavo said.
Opposition candidate Petraq Gjikuria responded on social media Monday, stating: “In these elections, we witnessed undemocratic methods at all stages,” adding “the result was a product of transforming the voter list to suit the interests of our opponents, allowing a party army to participate in the elections while simultaneously denying this right to thousands of Himara citizens and involving both the state and para-state. … The goal was to have another weak mayor who will serve the interests of Edi Rama and his party.”
Prime Minister Edi Rama described the new Himara mayor’s victory as “spectacular” and “significant support for the Socialist Party.”
-Large portion of voters denied right to cast ballot-
In Sunday’s vote in Himara, around 6,000 voters were reported to have expired ID cards. According to official data from the Central Election Commission, voter turnout was 37.69 percent, with 8,678 out of 23,074 registered voters participating.
Unlike the previous local elections when the validity of expired IDs was extended nationwide, voters in Himara were not allowed to vote with expired IDs in the Aug. 4 elections. Typically people who live in Greece and travel to Albania to vote are the ones with expired IDs, experts explained.
Central Election Commission Chairman Ilirian Celibashi told reporters in a press conference in Himara that there are around 6,000 voters whose documents have expired or will expire by today.
“Almost the same number was present in the previous elections,” Celibashi explained, adding that “the extension of ID validity is a decision that does not belong to the CEC but to the Ministry of the Interior, which should have been activated by political parties or voters. The CEC communicated when there was a request from political parties, but in these elections, there was no official communication,” he said.
-Implications for the 2025 general elections-
Government critics like opinion maker and journalist Andi Bushati argue that what was seen in Himara is a bad omen for Albania’s next elections in 2025, in which he argues the government aims to remove any hope of change through democratic means.
Albania’s government has been criticized for using state resources and changing rules to favor its candidates in previous elections, in which it won elections by wide margins, transforming Albania’s Socialist Party in a dominant role and decimating the ability of the opposition to win most races.
“The narrow margin that Fredi Beleri managed to create on May 14, 2023, should have been increased by the unique case of the arrest of a candidate two days before the race,” Bushati writes in an opinion article, arguing that the illusion that things can change through voting in Albania is dissipating.
“In Himara, Edi Rama killed even this illusion. … the Albanian autocrat no longer tolerates even the air of hope, even a false one, that someone else could decide in this country,” Bushati wrote.
-Relations with Athens unlikely to improve-
Athens has raised doubts about the integrity of the elections held Sunday in Himara. Greek diplomatic sources urged Tirana to respond to complaints about irregularities in the electoral process in Himara, according to Greek media reports.
“The complaints presented by members of Albania’s Greek ethnic minority regarding the conditions for holding the repeated municipal elections in the municipality of Himara, particularly concerning the demographic modification of the electorate and the denial of the constitutional right to vote for thousands of Himara citizens, under the pretext of the validity of their identity cards, raise serious doubts about the integrity of the process,” these sources told SKAI television.
“The democratic principle and European acquis require that the Albanian authorities evaluate and respond to all reports concerning the integrity of Sunday’s elections,” they added.
