Albania Opposition Party Elects New Leadership

More than 7,500 delegates from all over Albania selected 160 new members of the centre-right opposition party's national council at a congress held last weekend.

"The Albanian Democratic Party remains the largest centre-right party in Southeast Europe thanks to its ability to understand the times in which we live and the pulse of contemporary Albania," party boss Lulzim Basha told the delegates in a fiery speech on Saturday.

"We need to grow and deserve the majority of the popular vote. We need to grow and win in order to change Albania," he added.

Basha blamed the party's defeat in last year's general elections on the false promises of the centre-left coalition under Socialist leader Edi Rama, on voter fraud, on the economic crisis and on officials' failure to pay due attention to voters during their eight years in power, from 2005 to 2013.

"After one year of rule by the left-wing government, the weight of their false promises have come to light," Basha maintained.

Rama's Socialist won a resounding victory against the Democrats in the election, securing 84 of the 140 seats in parliament and forcing the veteran leader of the Democrats, Sali Berisha, to resign.

He was replaced by Basha last June, following a swift and controversial race for chairmanship. However, despite the change at the top of the party, many believe that Berisha still wields influence behind the scenes.

In his own speech to the congress, Berisha lambasted the centre-left government as corrupt and called on people to rise up against it.

"The government is based on a rotten triangle, which includes scandals, deceit and failure," he said. "Every day it spends in power is a day of punishment for the Albanian people," Berisha concluded.