Please, do not steal votes
Manipulation is increasing. Opposition: We will not withdraw from the commissions
Today, on the day of the local elections, the most important thing is that votes are not stolen. The immunity of each person’s vote is more important than the victory of this or that party, more important than the victory of the left or the right. The existence of the right and the left, of the PD and the PS, seems like an unnecessary luxury as long as we lack the distinguishing criterion between them: the free vote. Albanians still do not know where the left or the right stands, as long as they do not know how much each one is worth.
Today, almost a month after the campaign began, the parties’ promises to fill the potholes in the roads, pump water up to the fifth floor, or re-electrify cities in winter seem far too advanced for the country’s current level. Most important of all today is filling the holes in everyone’s conscience—in the conscience of every Albanian, from the president down to the most apolitical citizen. It is shameful to say, but Albania is still at the level of basic civic education. The cleanliness of today’s elections will be a lesson in civic conduct for many Albanians who do not know how to vote and, worse still, do not know how to count the votes. This is very simple. Everyone need only regard the counting of votes as they would the accounting of their own household. In this pre-political context to which Berisha has brought Albania, everyone must find and fight for the right choice. Because today the choice is not expected at all from the parties, but only from the cleanliness of the vote. The parties have committed a shared crime by building their campaigns around one another’s governing shortcomings. None of them, in their television or newspaper advertisements, promoted measures against vote-stealing. One candidate for the Tirana municipality promised to make the capital like all of Albania—which, translated into Albanian conditions, means: let us all steal the votes of Tirana just as they have stolen those of all Albania.
Today Albania stands at the crossroads of the vote. This is the only crossroads where you, as an individual, have it in your hands to turn the light green or red. All you have to do is not steal and give up the temptation to do so. Today everyone must understand that stealing a bank, a car, or a dollar is nothing compared with stealing a vote. Unlike a bank or dollars, the vote is everyone’s property and everyone’s fate.
Today we must all undergo a trial of [?]. It is not a popular vaccine, nor a vaccine against theft. This vaccination is even simpler. You can get vaccinated even more simply than with [?] against politicians. In this case, you need to open your eyes to notice two drops of [?] in your mind, and open your mouth when you see someone voting. The vote, of course.
KJ