FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
A few days after the May 11 elections, when the counting of preferential votes in Tirana revealed the first losers and winners with minimal margins, some socialist candidates could not resist the temptation to see with their own eyes how their votes were counted. The requests sent to the CEC were not for a recount of votes, nor for the opening of ballot boxes, but simply to see once again the film materials of the counting, which are easily provided by the CEC.
The first to appear at the CEC were Etilda Gjonaj and Xhemal Qefalia. The latter, narrowly defeated by Ornaldo Rakipi, had every right to demand transparency through film materials. The same minimal request was made by Blerina Gjylameti, who lost her mandate after a tough race with Olta Xhaçka by a few dozen votes.
This was not a move to question the result, nor a process that would force the CEC to open the ballot boxes. Both Gjylameti, Gjonaj, and Qefalia, when they saw their mandate slip away by a handful of votes, were asking for nothing more than a simple civil act: to obtain the film materials for internal use, as an opportunity to see the vote count with their own eyes.
Edi Rama's threat to silence MPs
But this minimal claim that was made by the losing candidates, instead of being treated as a basic right, was met with a brutal reaction from Prime Minister Edi Rama. Lapsi.al reported on Thursday that after Gjonaj and Qefalia sent their requests to the CEC, Prime Minister Rama himself sent a threatening message to the WhatsApp group of SP MPs.
He began the message, fully revealed by Lapsi.al, with a calm and understanding tone, only to end it with a cold threat to those who would not obey him.
"I have sadly received notice of several individual initiatives, to request filming, recounts and who knows what else regarding preferential voting!" Rama writes, continuing with the advice to "not go down that path."
"Because, first of all, losing a race should not be a reason to lose face, when in fact there is no chance, zero, that with all those eyes on the screens, there will be vote deviations of a magnitude that would fill anyone's gap with those who have emerged victorious - not by 10 or 20, but by many more votes than the next in the standings," says Rama's SMS, obtained by lapsi.al.
"Secondly, this means casting a shadow over our people, who have stood endlessly at the counting tables, and who do not deserve such a shadow of doubt anywhere for their great contribution.
"And finally, imagine for yourself how bad anyone who will enter this path will feel, feeding the media entity, when in the end, the impregnated mountain may not even produce a mouse!" - says Rama's message.
SP, as a military garrison
It didn't take long before Etilda Gjonaj was drawn by curiosity to see the preferential votes with her own eyes. In a message on social networks, she declared that she had received 5,569 votes and, with forced humility, thanked the counters – although she didn't know if any of them could have "made a mistake" with the votes by passing them on to her colleagues. Below is the official request that Etilda Gjonaj sent to the CEC, which reasons that the film materials will be used for "verification purposes".
Xhemal Qefalia also followed the same path, forced to bite his tongue for what his mind had told him, went to the media and made a self-criticism of the past. "I had withdrawn the request to see the footage of the vote counting even before Rama reacted," said Qefalia, aware that he is part of a party that resembles more a military garrison than a political organization.
Below is the official request that MP Xhemal Qefalia sent to the CEC with the aim of "identifying possible irregularities during the vote counting process, which could affect the election result."
Meanwhile, the only one who has so far resisted the urge to look at the cameras is Blerina Gjylameti, against whom attacks immediately began in the media for disobeying the mayor, for a refusal that is being treated within the ranks of the SP as a serious violation of party discipline.
In a message he shared on social media, Gjylameti wrote that "We don't fight small wars — we fight big battles for people's lives, not our own lives at all," without making it clear whether or not he is withdrawing from the official request to the CEC.
However, Blerina Gjylameti's request (see above) specifies that the footage of the counting process is requested for "verification purposes," which implies an internal balance of the work that has been done in each unit, including the diaspora.
This episode, seemingly insignificant within the great event of May 11, serves as a first taste of Edi Rama's governance in his fourth term, when the minimal demand for transparency is inconceivable and intolerable, not even for the socialist deputies themselves who have lost the right to see their own result, let alone contest it. Because as Rama says, "This means casting a shadow over our people who have stood endlessly at the counting tables... and they do not deserve such a shadow of doubt."
Ironically, it is the very socialists who know full well how necessary this shadow of doubt is over the counting tables.
In the 2021 elections, when it was decided to open some boxes, numerous deviations of preferential votes were discovered. The recount showed that Eduard Shalsi had 80 more votes; Ylli Shehu, 46; Saimir Hasalla 25, etc.
Edi Rama himself learned that 11 votes had been "stolen" from him in Durrës, where he ran for MP. But then, the opening of the ballot boxes did not tarnish the process. On the contrary, it made it more honest.
15 years away from the call "Open the boxes or leave"
It is interesting that the day Rama was speaking to the socialists, as a leader who cannot conceive of the minimum requirement for transparency, paradoxically the same day marked the anniversary of another speech, the one when Rama ended the hunger strike 15 years ago on "Martyrs of the Nation" Boulevard.
Rama in the opposition has been a symbol of the battle for transparency, to open the ballot boxes and recount the votes.
The socialist hunger strike began on May 1 and ended on May 19, 2010, as a vocal protest when dozens of people demanded a basic right, such as the verification of votes in the ballot boxes in the 2009 process.
Under the motto "Open the boxes or leave," Rama led the Socialists towards sacrifice for the cause of transparency in elections.
On May 19 of that year, it closed amid promises that one day, when the Socialist Party came to power, no citizen would be denied the right to see their vote.
Today, on the 15th anniversary of that strike, the only ones who can't see their vote are the socialists, and not because Sali Berisha is stopping them. But because it's Edi Rama who advises them "not to go down that path", as a threat from the center of power, which has shown that in order to stay afloat it needs to feed its children. / Lapsi
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