THE ELECTIONS ARE OVER; WHO IS IN PARLIAMENT NOW?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TIRANA 000535

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/05/2019
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL AL
SUBJECT: THE ELECTIONS ARE OVER; WHO IS IN PARLIAMENT NOW?

Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOHN L. WITHERS II FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) AND (d
).


1. (C) Summary: On August 1, the Central Election Commission
(CEC) certified the June 28 parliamentary elections. The
Democratic Party (DP) has 70 Members of Parliament, the
Socialist Party (SP) 66, and the Movement for Socialist
Integration (LSI) four. The DP and LSI will form a governing
coalition. Now that the elections are officially (and
finally) over, Post has taken a closer look at the new MPs.
This diverse group of businessmen, family and friends, savvy
political operators and only a few fresh faces will
undoubtedly present difficu,t challenges for the Prime
Ministar#S le'islapiv% agenda. End summary.

2 QCQ Nkw thap t(e Jujd 28 election process has finally
concluded after a contentious month of the final stages of
the voting process in which the Socialist Party declared the
elections "illegitimate," Post took a closer look at just who
has been elected to make Albania's laws. By the numbers, the
parliament will feature 70 DP, 66 SP, and four LSI coalition
members. Women won 23 of the 140 available seats, up from
eight in the last parliament. Eighty one MPs are new and 59
have been reelected. The June 28 elections were conducted
under a new electoral code in which citizens voted for
parties, rather than directly for candidates, which made for
a different dynamic, especially on Election Day which was
quiet. Both PM Sali Berisha and SP Leader Edi Rama largely
handpicked every name on the parliamentary lists. Looking
over the names on the list, four groups emerge: operators,
businessmen, fresh faces, and relatives or friends.

THE OPERATORS
--------------


3. (C) The operators are the political veterans who have been
playing the game for some time. On the ruling Democratic
Party (DP) side these include names such as Jozefina Topalli
and are MPs who have stood loyally by Berisha through some
very challenging times, such as Gerdec, the Durres-Kukes road
scandal, and other substantial problems. For the SP, this
category divides further into construction magnates and
older, more established politicians with smaller business
interests. The former hold great sway in the SP and include
names like Arta Dade and Ermelinda Meksi. The second group
features people like Pandeli Majko, Arben Malaj, Ben Blushi,
and Kastriot Islami who manage to maintain their political
stature while also managing their own private businesses.
This latter group has been the most critical of Rama after
the election, perhaps because their businesses are not as
dependent on Rama as others are.

THE BUSINESSMEN
--------------


4. (C) This category has the most colorful membership. The
SP business people are easier to identify and are divided
into two groups: builders and "other business." The builders
club keeps growing and includes not only several of the
"operators" named above but also newer names that Rama
brought in when he took over the SP. A good example is the
Chairperson of the SP Parliamentary Group, Valentina Leskaj.
Others in this group are only in the Rama camp for the money
and may be more than willing to move to the other side if it
benefits them. For example, one SP MP in Durres has already
announced his intention to join the DP coalition. The "other
business" group features MPs like Fidel Ylli, a former
bodyguard who succeeded in making money from casinos and
seems to have no connection to SP ideology. Lefter Koka of
LSI is also a good example of the businessman turned MP.
Finally, some MPs are simple thugs. These MPs have made
their fortunes through various means and tend to switch
parties if business requires. They can be very rich, have
minimal education, and they can be violent. The classic
example is Tom Doshi, who is the richest-declared MP with a
fortune estimated at EUR 10 million, and who runs
construction, pharmaceutical, and dairy businesses. He is
also suspected of running some not so legal enterprises.

THE FRESH FACES
--------------


5. (C) The fresh faces are an intriguing group. Some were
used to reach the 30 per cent quota of women on the parties'
lists, as required by the Electoral Code, while others were
used solely for their fresh faces. In many cases, they are
real professionals, but in more cases they are novices. For
the SP, names like former Albanian Helsinki Committee head
Vasilika Hysi, Eglantina Gjermenji of the Gender Development

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Alliance Committee, or actor Luiza Xhuvani fit into this
category. There are yet others with no noteworthy
background, like Saimir Tahiri of the Party for Justice and
Integration (PDI). For the DP, Gazmend Oketa is
representative of the fresh face crowd. The new faces of
both parties have many things in common: they tend to have
studied abroad and they speak several foreign languages.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY
--------------


6. (C) Finally, there are more than a few MPs who were put on
the list simply due to party or personal loyalty and/or
connections. For example, some are related to other active
party members while others are friends of PM Berisha,s son
or daughter or Edi Rama. A few others joined the SP since
they had fallen out of favor with the PM or left the DP for
other reasons.

COMMENT
--------------


7. (C) For both parties, the MPs, while elected by the
people, were named personally by the party leader, i.e. Rama,
Berisha, or Meta, giving the leaders extraordinary control
over who becomes an MP. Whether or not this is positive will
be known only after parliament begins its work in September.
The fact that 81 MPs are newly elected is also noteworthy and
it is not clear what this impact will have on the new
parliament either. Clearly, many of the MPs were selected
solely for their loyalty to the party bosses, so the prospect
of bi-partisanship may be quite low. However, because of the
narrow and relatively weak ruling coalition between the DP
and LSI, cooperation and reaching across the aisle will be
required for serious legislation. This coalition also marks
the first time in Albania's history that a "leftwing" force
(LSI) has combined with a "rightwing" one (DP).
WITHERS