Conducted on 29 May, a recent poll by IPR showed that over half (53.5 per cent) of Albanians believe that the 30 June local elections should be postponed; 38 per cent believe they should still go ahead. 60.6 per cent also said that elections taking place without the PD and LSI would not be valid or legitimate; 33.4 per cent said they would still be valid.
Additionally, the poll showed that the ruling Socialist Party have lost 4.3 percentage points since a similar poll was conducted prior to the 2017 elections that they won. They now have 44.5 per cent of the vote when compared to 38.5 per cent for PD and 13 per cent for LSI, resulting in a combination of 51.5 per cent of the vote for the opposition.
LSI and PD did however both register a small drop in potential voters since a poll taken on 3 April of this year, while the Socialist Party has registered a small increase.
Those surveyed were also asked about the job situation in the country. 68 per cent believe that the government need to create more jobs to stop people from leaving the country. Just over half believe the minimum wage should be raised and almost 30 per cent think there needs to be more investment in career development.
Around one third believe that corruption and criminality are one of the main driving forces behind Albanians departing abroad. Only 12 per cent believe those living abroad should be encouraged to return.
47 per cent of respondents believe that if Albania’s EU negotiations are blocked, the responsibility falls on both the government (29.6 per cent) and the opposition (21.1 per cent). The amount of people that would blame Edi Rama’s government for delays in accession talks has risen from 20.4 per cent in April, to 29.6 per cent in May. There was also a 4 per cent increase in those that believe responsibility would fall on the opposition.
52.9 per cent of the respondents said they disagreed with opposition’s decision to boycott the June local elections, whilst 37.6 per cent agreed.
Those who believe that a snap election should be called has increased from 28.9 per cent in April, to 40.2 per cent now. 42.2 per cent think snap elections shouldn’t be called, 15 per cent refused to answer.
Despite these results, 49.8 per cent of Albanians are against the protests that are currently ongoing in Tirana but 52 per cent say that the current political crisis is not normal, democratic, or legal.
As for Rama’s administration, 32.2 per cent approve his work, 38.9 per cent disapprove it, and 18.3 per cent neither approve nor disapprove it. The Prime Minister’s approval rating has dropped 2.7 percentile points in just over a month.
The margin of error for the survey is 2.7 per cent.
