A fixed ring is not a fair fight!

By Jani Nano

Secretary General of LRE Rinisja

In boxing, a fight does not begin when the bell rings.

It begins earlier: at the weigh-in, in the rules, in the gloves, with the referee, in the chance for two opponents to enter the ring without being damaged by the conditions before the first punch is thrown.

If one fighter enters with his hands tied, the other with his corner full of people, the referee with his eyes on the stronger man, and the crowd fed only on the favorite’s name, then the bell can ring all it wants.

The fight is over before it begins.

That is the real issue with the Electoral Code.

It is not enough for politics to call it reform.

It is not enough for the formula to have a modern name: open lists, national proportional representation, threshold, coalition, stability.

The question is simpler and heavier, does the citizen enter a contest where he can truly see alternatives, or a ring where the old winners have fixed the conditions before the fight?

Albania does not suffer from a lack of people who want to speak.

It suffers from an order that decides who is allowed to be heard.

Some enter the ring with lights, cameras, sponsors, manufactured stories, and a status decided in advance.

Others are asked to prove their existence without airtime, without money, without equality at the start, and then are told they do not carry enough weight.

This is not a democratic contest.

It is a bout decided before the first punch.

A high threshold in a country with free media, fair financing, a neutral administration, and citizens unshaped by fear may be discussed as a rule.

The same threshold in Albania, with patronage, unequal money, selective airtime, and inherited names, becomes a low blow against every force seeking to be born politically without the permission of the old champions.

LRE Rinisja is not asking for a referee bought in its favor.

It is not asking for the scale to be lowered.

It is not asking to be handed a title.

It is asking only for a clean ring.

It is asking for rules that do not protect tired champions from new challengers.

It is asking that the citizen not be the audience of a staged fight, but the free judge of what he sees, hears, and chooses.

Because democracy is not a ceremony in which the old change gloves and call it a new contest.

Democracy is the contest in which even the one without a famous name, but with a just cause, ideas, and courage, is allowed to enter the ring without being beaten by the rules before he fights.

If the Code closes that possibility, we do not have reform.

We have a bell for a fight the citizen was never allowed to win.

Jani Nano

Secretary General of LRE Rinisja