Edi Rama leads major restructuring of Socialist Party leadership for fourth term bid
During its National Assembly on Sunday, the Socialist Party of Albania announced a deep overhaul of its leadership structure, focusing on the goal set by the head of the party, Edi Rama, to win a fourth term in government.
Why is this significant
The comprehensive restructuring of the Party’s leadership aims to strengthen its political strategy and effectiveness in an election year. It includes significant changes to the political leaders of districts, crucial for attaining political power during elections.
Context
In addition to selecting the 10 members of the Steering Committee, Rama has also replaced the political leaders of the districts. While some coordinators were reconfirmed for districts they have managed over the past two years, new names have been appointed too, with Rama emphasizing the need for both experience and new energy in the 34-year-old party.
Beyond the 12 districts that make up the country’s administrative and territorial divisions, a new leader has been added to exclusively coordinate the Albanian Diaspora. In Tirana, the largest district with the largest number of mandates, the leadership will be shared by three significant figures: the Mayor of Tirana, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Minister of Education and Sport.
A major change affects the way in which candidates for deputies will be selected. Those with more than one term in Parliament, will not be in the closed lists which guarantee a seat in the next parliament, but will compete in the open list where candidates in every district compete against each other, and those within the list who get the most votes secure a place in the parliament.
Rama assured the public that he will be on the open list, though he has not yet decided in which district he will run. Currently, he is a deputy of the Durres District. The socialist assembly also renewed the entire secretariat, and endorsed a new structure called the Assembly of the Young, which will be supplied with new talent from the Political Academy of the Socialist Party.
Speaking about his opponents in the Democratic Party, Rama said that based on the surveys, they will not be able to win more mandates than they did in their worst year ever, in the 1997 elections which were held shortly after the bloody turmoil that hit Albania as a result of the collapse of the pyramid schemes, widely blamed on then President Sali Berisha and his Democratic Party. At the time the Democratic Party won a mere 25 mandates out of a total of 140.
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