Basha Reelected Leader of Albania’s Democrats Despite Election Rout

Less than two months after his party lost the general elections on 25 April for the third time to the Socialist Party, Lulzim Basha won internal leadership elections, confirming his grip on the party for the next four years.

The party now is in a difficult position after losing elections for a third time and after quitting public institutions and boycotting the local elections in 2019. Its "historical" leader, Sali Berisha, was also recently banned from the United States on grounds of corruption.

Basha has maintained that the result of the general election did not express the will of the people but was bought and manipulated by the party in power.

All members of the party in the country were eligible to vote for the leadership; 41,097 members cast ballots of which 40,684 votes were deemed valid. Basha won 32,882 votes, far ahead of the other candidates: Agron Shehaj, Edit Harxhi and Fatbardh Kadilli.

Shehaj was one of the most voted-for MPs in the last elections in the Tirana region. On Sunday, he accused the elections of taking place amid violations and irregularities.

"We are collecting facts and data on all violations and irregularities. Unfortunately, I have to say that in a large number of polling stations, my observers are being excluded, banned or prevented from monitoring the process," he wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

Harxhi won 983 votes. A long time deputy foreign minister from 2005 to 2013, he was one of the first figures in the Democratic Party to put the responsibility for losing the election on Basha and ask for his resignation and reformation of the party.

Kadilli, who got 781 votes , has been an advisor on corruption and a member of parliament. In an interview he said that he aimed to "turn the party...