Flash News

Collision between three vehicles in Lushnja, four injured

Murder of Xhulio Prela, Court of Appeals requests SPAK's conversations with Ervis and Brilant Martinaj

Two charged with allegedly raping former DP MP's son in Lundë

The young man denounced the scandalous state of the road, two SP officials rape him (VIDEO)

A guard at a facility in Vlora is executed by gunfire

Ditari i Maxhorancës

"BIRN" survey for May 14, Rama risks losing the Municipality of Malësi e Madhe

Politiko 2023-04-17 20:51:01

"BIRN" survey for May 14, Rama risks losing the Municipality of

Nearly 46,000 voters in the municipality of Malësia e Madhe in the north of Albania will have the opportunity to choose for mayor between the current mayor, Tonin Marinaj, and the candidate of the We Win coalition, Isa Ramaj. Voters will have the opportunity to choose between 20 different parties for the positions of members of the Municipal Council. The council in this municipality has 31 members. There are 668 candidates in the multi-name lists of competing parties for the City Council.

Municipal councils in local government elections are elected according to closed lists. In case a citizen votes for a certain party, the first person on the list of this party has a chance to enter the council.

Malësia e Madhe consists of the administrative units Koplik, Gruemire, Kastrat, Kelmend, Qendrër and Shkrel. It covers 951 square kilometers and has 56 villages and two towns. It stretches from the shores of Lake Shkodra to Vermosh along the border with Montenegro.

Voter turnout was around 45% in 2015, which seems to reflect the area's high rate of emigration.

In the elections of 2007 and 2011, the candidates of the right had a considerable advantage over the left in the municipalities of this municipality. This changed in 2015, when the Socialist Party took over the municipality through Tonin Marinaj, a businessman and public official. Marinaj managed to defeat the Democrats in a traditionally anti-socialist area by winning over 10,000 votes, votes won while the Socialists were in alliance with the Socialist Integration Movement. LSI, which today competes in alliance with former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, had 15% of the votes at that time. Marinaj held the mandate in the uncontested elections of 2019 when he received about 8,000 votes.

The Together We Win coalition competes with Isa Ramajn, who was earlier the mayor and a member of the Municipal Council.

If the 2021 election is any indication, the race appears to be tight. In these parliamentary elections, the SP received 41% of the votes while the DP received 44%. But the Social Democratic Party, which is in an informal alliance with the Socialists and is led by Tom Doshi, received nearly 1,500 votes or 9% in the territory of this municipality. Consequently, the result of the May 14 elections will probably depend not only on the preferences of the traditional voters of the left and the right, but also on the degree of engagement of the political machines in these elections. In total, SP and PSD together received about 300 more votes than PD and LSI.

The municipality of Malësi e Madhe has 340 employees. The municipality's budget for 2022 was ALL 78 million in revenue and ALL 639 million in expenses./BIRN