This week the Central Elections Commission (CEC) consolidated what was previously agreed between the two major political parties in Albania, SP and DP, when it comes to the composition of the MP candidate lists in the upcoming general elections on May 11,2025.

According to the formula that will be applied for the first time in these elections, the first 46 MPs of each competing subject will be the product of the closed list where the ranking has been determined by the party leader, while only the parties that manage to get a number of mandates that exceeds the closed list will have the opportunity to bring MPs to the Assembly as the result of the citizens’ choice. Each list will need to be 186 names long to reflect these changes.

It is ironic how two antagonistic parties who disagree almost on everything else and clash on a daily basis inside and outside of the parliament, easily find a relatively quick consensus when it comes to serving their respective leaders’ interest.

The party leadership will get to decide the most coveted part of the list, the actual winning one, the top third tier. Very little competition space will be left to the actual ranking between other candidates, perhaps in Tirana where the long list allows for more testing of the open list principle. For any of the new parties or smaller parties this automatically means that the fixed list is the only one that has any chance.

Opening up the candidate list to voter preferences has been one of the most discussed options in order to limit the enormous amount of power that party leaders have inside their own parties. By deciding not only who gets in the MP candidate list but also in which position they are ranked, the party leaders de-facto retained control over their parties and secured absolute loyalty over all these years since 2008. This loyalty has led to increasing authoritarianism inside the party by the leaders, which in turn has spilled over to increased authoritarianism in their overall political behavior.

Party statutes, established practices and any other collective mechanisms that used to govern at least partially the political life of these entities have been eroded dramatically and replaced with direct and exclusive interaction with the leader, an interaction which increasingly has resembled a one-sided monologue and obedience.

The choice of inertia showcases not only a selfish political interest but also a paranoia over controlling the parties under the premise that internal strife is all that matters- a slogan that has tuned into a proper cliché.

Opening up the candidate lists fully is surely not a silver bullet to counter these solidified trends. However, it is an important and useful tool that secures at least partial balance between the single leaders and the rest of the organization, offering platforms of discussion and even one could hope dissent. The decision to retain most of the control over the list by the party leaders is a missed opportunity for internal party democracy and hence a wasted chance also for democracy in general in Albania.

Source: CEC Albania 

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