How to read open lists

2024-07-26 09:55:00, Politikë CNA

Illustrative photo

The political parties in Albania announced their agreement, which as a novelty brought the opening of the lists, after a decision of the Constitutional Court, which overturned the quotient, i.e. the famous threshold of 10,000 votes. ( Read here )

There were two proposals, lowering the threshold to 7,000, or removing the earlier and partially opening the list, and that's what happened.

The majority and the opposition, SP and DP, announced that they had reached a consensus and had found a political solution for the Electoral Reform. It does not appear to be a complete solution, but a partial, truncated one, as the parties stated.

Oerd Bylykbashi, the representative of the Democratic Party, said that this was the maximum that could be decided in relation to the spaces that were allowed after the decision of the Constitutional Court. ( Read here )

Oerd Bylykbashi and Damian Gjiknuri

Damian Gjiknuri, the representative of the Socialist Party, stated that the opposition's conditions had been accepted, but the majority had other proposals. In fact, it should be seen more simply.

What does opening with 2/3 of the voter list mean?

The first part of the list, 30% of it, will be closed and the rest open. A concrete example is the County of Vlora. With the results of the elections of 2021, but also of 2017 and 2013, if you look at them, the SP has 8 mandates, the DP has 4 mandates.

Whether the list is opened or not, this has zero effect for the District of Vlora, because out of 12 deputies, PD has 4, 1/3 is decided, the race is for the 5th, while the opposition gets 4 mandates.

There is more competition in the Socialist Party. The opening of the lists seems that in the next elections it favors the majority, the power, because the SP maintains its elite and ignites an internal competition . This is of great interest to the majority because 12 years of power, its fatigue and consumption could give a complacency and a difficulty in starting the electoral engines, which Rama is trying hard to push.

The headquarters of the Socialist Party

On the other hand, for the opposition, the problem will be a separation with Lulzim Basha, a fragmentation of it. However, the opposition is always motivated and in this case, after 12 years, it would rev up its engines. In the case of Vlora District, the advantages go to the government. Let's see the District of Tirana.

How are mandates divided in the District of Tirana?

There are 36 mandates in the District of Tirana, where 30% of the list is closed. 12 mandates are fixed lists, the rest are open lists. The opposition in Tirana has received 15 mandates, normally it will try to receive 17 or 18, together with LSI even more. In Tirana, the battle takes place for 3 or 4 mandates. There are 24 people in the race, who will try to get 4 mandates, it doesn't matter who you are on the list, because the ranking will be in alphabetical order by last name, one more vote will get you in.

The headquarters of the Democratic Party

In Tirana, there is a competition for 30% of the remaining list. If we read it differently, 12 seats are closed and 3 seats are open, or 4 if the opposition gets one more mandate. Thus, the number of empty seats in the competing part of the opposition list goes from 25 to 30%.

The same situation also happens in Elbasan, the same situation also happens in Fier and in most districts where there are many mandates.

So, if we look carefully at the new electoral formula, which has been accepted by the majority, it seems to be more favorable to the government and less open to the opposition. Although the opposition in Tirana will claim 19 out of 15 mandates and the list is open from the 12th to the 19th, there are probably 7 contests, but only in Tirana the opening of the list can go up to 30 or 35% of its total.

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In all other districts, with a simple logic, 30% of the closed list, turned upside down, shows us that only a small number of mandates have been opened, that if you collect them in Korça, Tirana and elsewhere, you will give a figure of about 15 mandates.

A majority requires 71 mandates, about 15 mandates won with the open list, belong simply and only about 20% of the total list of a new or existing majority.

Abuse of propaganda for opening the list

Flaggers of the complete opening of the list, or 2/3 of it that are used as a propaganda figure, are actually lying, since the real number of deputies who enter the Parliament, who enter each district, is several times smaller than 2/3 his, this is because of the figures that each political party benefits from in the elections.

And if we list the counties in order, it turns out that we don't have a complete opening of the list and that would be a solution. The figure for opening 2/3 of the list has a big abuse inside.

The abuse is this fact, we are bringing it again as an argument that the majority to win must get 50+1% or 50+1 seats in the Parliament, that is 71 deputies, while the lists will have 140 names in total. It is said that the list for 2/3 has been opened, which includes even half of the mandates, almost 49% of those that are not taken by the winning majority, which remain for the other party, simply put, a maybe 10+1 mandates with a list of open, there will be at least 42 fixed seats in the Parliament.

convention

Out of these 42, for one party, only Tirana has almost 18 mandates, almost half of the list, which means that with the number of mandates that each political force wants, the closing of the list is almost 60% or more in each wing to you look

The opening by 2/3 actually has within it a closing by 2/3, a partial reform with partial numbers that does not have an open race, but that has set a certain number of mandates with the pretense of preserving the elites political parties.

There are partisans of open lists, proportional lists with 12 districts, with 6 districts, with a single electoral district, and so on, but there are also claims that party elites are losing.

The party elites cannot lose in any case, since they are located on the party list and it is the party itself that determines the candidates on the list.

If a candidate does not manage to get enough votes to be within the number of 71 mandates required for a political majority, then he is not a politician, but simply an activist who runs empty and does not get political votes./ CNA