Number of women MPs doubled in Albania

The parliamentary election on June 28 resulted in a two-fold increase in the number of women MPS, from ten to 21 compared to the previous election. This must be regarded as a great victory for Albanian women's organisations who have struggled long and hard to get more women into decision-making positions and for a 30 per cent quota. The quota law passed in 2008 gave immediate results, from 7.1 to 15 per cent women.

"This is a great victory for the Albanian women's movement and underlines the importance of sustained support to women's organisations and their networking," says Elisabet Thorp, Kvinna till Kvinna Coordinator for Albania, Montenegro and Serbia.

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation has supported women's organisations in Albania since 1999. Several women from the organisation's partners stood in the election, among them Eglantina Gjermeni, who was elected on behalf of the Socialist Party. She sees the election result as a vital inroad for women in Albania and says it would never have happened without the great efforts of civil society, women's organisations in particular. Support from international organisations also played a crucial role.

"More women getting elected shows that politics is no longer the sole domain of men. Women's political participation is a fundamental human right. I look to the future with optimism in the knowledge that our women MPs will pursue a women's perspective in all decisions and debates," she says.

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation's Field Coordinator in Albania, Safete Beqiri, travelled to Shkodra in northern Albania accompanied by one of our partners, Gruaja te Gruaja, to monitor the election process. Shkodra is located in northern Albania, a region in which family block voting is not uncommon, that is to say the father in the family votes for the entire family or decides how individual family members vote. A few incidents were reported in the Albanian media but Safete Beqiri saw nothing of this during her visits to polling stations. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), who monitored the election, criticised the widespread family block voting, maintaining that the phenomenon violates the laws on free and impartial elections. However, according to the OSCE, the election was better organised than the previous election.

Eglantina Gjermeni is looking forward to the new challenge of being an MP, albeit in the knowledge that she is facing an uphill struggle.

"This is the greatest challenge of my life so far and I have mixed feelings. I owe a great deal to those who voted for me and to the Socialist Party. I'm looking forward to the challenge and responsibility that goes with it, but I'm worried about doing a good job and living up to the great expectations of my friends and colleagues."

Annika Flensburg:

Read Armela Bejko's blog on the election at Family Voting. Armela, who is active in the Women's Association for Social Problems in Durres, Albania, blogs on her activism at www.pushingthelimits.se