By Eduard Zaloshnja
In the last 24 hours, I conducted an electronic survey with 1,326 adult residents of the country to test support for a new party that could be created following the example of the “Student List” electoral subject in Serbia.
The survey link was distributed via random SMS messages, proportionally across the cities and villages of the country, and the questionnaire was completed completely anonymously by respondents. At the conclusion of the survey, the sample was statistically calibrated to represent as closely as possible the 1.9 million adult residents of Albania in terms of geography, demographics, education, and politics, with a statistical margin of error of +/- 2.7%.
The survey found that nearly 1/3 of the country’s adult residents are ready to vote for a new party, if one is created. Meanwhile, 1/10 are not ready to vote either for it or for any of the existing parties.
Those who are ready to vote for a new party (if created) voted last year in a more or less proportional manner for the PS, the PD-ASHM, the small parties, or did not vote at all. Thus, 2 out of 10 former PS voters, 3 out of 10 former PD-ASHM voters, and 3 out of 10 former voters of small parties are ready to vote for the new party. Additionally, nearly 6/10 of those who did not vote at all last year are also ready to vote for it.
While 1/3 of respondents said they are ready to vote for a new party (if created), they do not know how this new electoral subject could be formed or who could lead it.
Before the student protests began, a forum of intellectuals was presented in the media as the nucleus of a new electoral subject, but it was not very active. After the student protests began, a group of educators expressed solidarity with them, but they gathered in front of the university only three days and then never gathered again.
The students themselves are entirely unorganized (unlike Serbian students). At first they took to the streets in front of the Ministry of Arsm, but very quickly hooded, masked individuals took the lead, throwing stones and setting fire to shops, banks and institutions. Now many students are not attending classes, nor are they attending protests (currently around 117 thousand young people are enrolled in Albania’s public and private universities).
The “Flamingos” of the spring no longer identify as such and may simply have been mixed in with the non-violent part of the current protests. An attempt by them to convene a “National Assembly” in spring failed.
So, it remains to be seen whether a new group will emerge that can convince 1/3 of Albanians that it deserves their vote…