Confident headlines over the past year have proclaimed the spread of democracy around the world, but saying so doesn’t make it happen overnight.
The hard work of building democracy is being done partly by the Americans and citizens of other nations who are quietly working in regions such as the Balkans and the former Soviet republics teaching what it means to participate in a free and open society. As we approach our election on Nov. 1, I can’t help thinking about where I was last summer.
On the Fourth of July, when other Americans were celebrating our independence, I was observing democracy in the making in Albania. I went there with 47 Americans (including one other Coloradan, Amy Naccarato, who works in the secretary of state’s office) to join 360 observers from 36 nations to monitor Albania’s parliamentary elections, which began on July 3. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) organized our work.
Tirana, the capital and the largest city in Albania with a population of 300,000 citizens, sits at the foot of a looming mountain range. However, it’s a long way from Colorado both in distance (approximately 6,000 air miles) and culture (70 percent of Albania’s population is Muslim, the highest percentage in Europe). Across from my hotel, on Skenderberg Square, stood a mosque that broadcast daily the calls to prayer that echoed through the neighboring community.
Each monitoring team included two observers, an interpreter and driver. My partner, Valerie Solomon, was a retired English civil servant. Our interpreter Ada, an Albanian, who works for a Swiss non-government organization, is the mother of two children. Her husband works as a driving instructor even though he’s a trained engineer. Lack of jobs for educated members of the workforce is a real problem in Albania, the second poorest country in Europe. Hazir, our driver, has worked on the docks in Durres, a port city on the Adriatic Sea, where we were to observe the voting. He drove an old, well- kept Mercedes – a model that seemed to be the most popular car on the road.
The day before voting began, we traveled to meet officials of the Zone Election Commission. It was their responsibility to conduct the election in the area, Zone 25, where we were stationed. Our assignment was only to observe and not interfere with the election process. However, we were obligated to fill out five different official forms that covered various aspects of the election process, ranging from Form A (Opening of Voting Center) to Form E (Observation of the Vote Count). We were to write up any problems we witnessed.
We would also take complaints from local observers assigned by their political parties at both the neighborhood voting centers and the central count center, where all the ballots in our zone were tabulated. These completed forms from the more than 200 teams of observers scattered throughout Albania became the essential information used by OSCE in writing their reports on the conduct of the election.
So why are such missions important?
Prodding and encouraging fragile emerging democracies to have transparent elections is in the United States’ self-interest, especially in the Balkans. Concepts such as the rule of law and civic responsibility are fragile new ideas in this conflict-ridden region – particularly in Albania, which emerged from 40 years of a Stalinist-like dictatorship in 1990.
Participating with observers from many nations demonstrates that ordinary citizens from OSCE’s 55 member countries understand the power of cooperation in these small but fundamental acts of nation building. Taking vacation time or spending part of one’s retirement monitoring other countries elections may be unusual, but the experience is deeply rewarding.
Helping in elections with other Europeans begins to dispel the notion that arrogant Westerners do not respect societies that aren’t like theirs. This is the sixth election since the fall of communism in Albania, and OSCE has been involved in almost every one.
Observing the election process reminds those of us from “older” democracies how precious the right to vote is. We all saw lengthy lines of Albanians standing in the heat to cast their ballots. Most of the appointed officials who counted the votes spent long hours (some, all night) carrying out their duties in an enthusiastic and heartfelt way. I was thanked personally several times for being a “witness” to the election.
Working as an observer can have its tense moments. My team was temporarily pulled back from our voting zone after word was received that a carload of armed gunmen were shooting in the air near voting stations. My partner, Valerie, has been on 70 missions to different countries since 1986. During her last election in Albania in 1997, a grenade exploded at her polling center, and the next day a sniper’s bullet landed near her feet as she walked away from the same building.
Her attitude is that she leads a kind of charmed life. When she was a child, during the blitz in World War II, a bomb landed near her pram and she was blown out of it. Her mother picked her up, brushed her off and they went on their way.
The organization’s preliminary report found that while the Albanians made some progress, there were complaints about disorganized vote counts, significant delays during the tabulation of results and some political parties alleging that votes were not accurately counted. The final report will flesh out this information and other allegations in more detail. OSCE reports are taken very seriously by the nations of Europe. An “unfavorable” can cast the affected government in a bad light with other nations of the continent.
The parliamentary elections filled 140 seats with candidates from 17 political parties.
There was a regime change in Albania. Sali Berisha, leader of the center-right Democratic Party, defeated the Socialist Party led by Prime Minister Fatos Nano. The transition was somewhat tumultuous, but the new government was seated.
Those who work with the OSCE on both long and short-term missions are justifiably proud of the role they have played in fair elections in regions with explosive histories. Such international teams can help lay the foundation for free, open and stable societies in volatile areas of the world where ideas like democratic civic engagement were never allowed, much less cultivated, in the past.
Zeik Saidman is associate director of the Centers at CU-Denver’s Graduate School of Public Affairs
