"It has historically supported today's opposition", BIRN: Lezha, the district where the result is unlikely to change

The citizens of the Lezha district are expected to mandate seven deputies on May 11, where the opposition seems to aim to maintain its past result while the Socialists will try once again to overturn it, something they have attempted several times but without much success.

The result of the 2021 elections gave the opposition four out of seven mandates, while the Socialists received 3 mandates and the SMI, while receiving 10% of the vote, received zero mandates.

The SMI and the DP together received 58% of the votes in the district and, since they are already running together, need about 4 thousand more votes to get a fifth mandate. This also suggests that, if the opposition loses a few thousand votes, the result is unlikely to change again and the mandates could be divided 4 to 3 in favor of the opposition. Meanwhile, for the result to pass in favor of the socialists, the opposition would have to lose over 14 thousand votes, or more than one in every three votes it received in the previous elections.

The Lezha region gave the Democratic Party four mandates in the 2009 and 2013 elections, while the one mandate it lost in 2017 was won by the Socialist Movement for Integration. The Socialists won 3 mandates in 2009, while in 2013, when they ran in alliance with the LSI, they lost one mandate to the LSI. In 2017, the Socialists managed to win a simple majority in the region against the Democrats, but again, they could not win more than 3 mandates.

Lezha was also the district where the involvement of organized crime in the elections became synonymous with the country's need to cleanse politics of crime.

In the 2023 local government elections, the Socialists won two of the three municipalities in the region, but the race in this area was unusually close. While Socialist candidates won 55% of the vote nationally, in the three municipalities of Lezha they won with only 51%, compared to the opposition's 49%.

Demographic and social profile

The Lezha Region encompasses a vast territory stretching from the Adriatic coast and the Western Lowlands to the hilly and mountainous areas of Mirdita. According to the 2023 Census, the region has a strong Catholic identity, with 75% of the population belonging to this religion. Catholics in the Lezha Region are more numerous and make up a higher percentage of the population than in Shkodër, the area traditionally known as the center of Catholicism in the country.

The economy of the region is diverse, with very fertile lands along the Drin valley of Lezha, with developed tourism in the town of Shëngjin and, more recently, on the beach of Tale, as well as with a mining industry in the territory of Mirdita.

The towns of Laç and Lezha, which developed as industrial centers during the communist era, now retain limited manufacturing industry. Agrotourism has developed particularly successfully as a private initiative in the village of Fishtë, while ecotourism in the numerous lagoons of the Drin, Lezha and Mat estuaries is threatened by high levels of erosion, pollution and illegal hunting.

The region has a number of towns that remain so only nominally; the Municipality of Mirdita counts four toponyms as towns, Rrëshen, Rubik, Reps and Kurbnesh, the latter two having lost the mining industry for which they were built. In the lowlands, the town of Laç and the towns of Mamurras and Milot have developed as industrial towns of late.

In the 2023 Census, the resident population was 99 thousand people, a decrease of 26% compared to 2011 and 37% compared to 2001.

About 65% of the population lives in urban areas. Between 2011 and 2023, the urban population decreased by 17% and the rural population by 33%.

Candidates

The current Minister of Justice, Ulsi Manja, and Ermal Pacaj, a psychologist who has held several government positions in recent years, have taken up the closed list of Socialist Party candidates and are likely to be the winners. Opposite them, Agron Gjekmarkaj and Elda Hoti, both current MPs, are running for Greater Albania. Three municipal directors, an OSHEE director, a school principal, a diplomatic journalist and a private business manager are running on the open list of the SP. Former Lezha Mayor Viktor Tushaj is running for the SP-LSI coalition of two decades ago in the opposition alongside former judge Gjin Gjoni and MP Lindita Metaliaj. Several local activists, such as Rigerta Loku and Arilda Lleshi, are running for the Nisma Shqipëria Bëhet coalition alongside Dede Prenga, a former senior military officer.

Emiljando Kita and Xhuljane Uku from the non-profit sector are running on the closed list of the Together Movement alongside a retired miner, a driver living in Italy, a football manager and a self-employed lawyer. Reporter.al