Elections under Hohxa

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Elections under Hohxa Comrade 04/30/15 (Thu) 22:33:07 No.2463

Descriptions of elections in Hoxha's Albania:

"At the first postwar elections in December 1945, voters faced a single list of candidates without opposition. Not surprisingly, it won an 86 percent majority. Subsequent referenda, designed to sidestep the high rate of illiteracy, gave voters a ball to drop into a 'Yes' or a 'No' slot. Through the former, it fell silently into a sack; through the latter, it rattled into a can."

https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195896/history-of-Europe/58483/A-climate-of-fear

The above is taken nearly verbatim from Richard J. Mayne's "The Recovery of Europe, 1945-1973 (aka "From Devastation to Unity") which is no surprise since he's a contributor to the article:

"A semblance of popular consent was supplied by referenda: but the ballot was hardly secret. Owing to the high rate of illiteracy, voters were given a ball to drop into a box with two openings marked respectively 'Yes' and 'No.' Through the 'Yes' slot, the ball fell silently into a sack; through the 'No' slot, it rattled into a tin can."

https://books.google.com/books?id=J0y5AAAAIAAJ

According to my notes, the above cites A.J.P. Taylor's "English History, 1914-1945" as a source, though I can't access the reference or the source online.

Here's a description provided by "a clerk in the fiscal administration of the town of Korçë," as relayed in testimony to the US House by Representative Charles Kersten in 1954:

"In the polling place there are two tables, on each of which is a ballot box. One box (decorated with flowers and flags), is the box of the Democratic Front; the other box is painted black and called 'the enemy's box' or 'box without candidates.' One member of the local electoral supervisory commission stands between the two boxes and explains to the voters: 'This is the box of Enver Hoxha, the box of the people. That one there is the box of the enemy. You can throw your vote in whichever one you like, but the one here is ours.'

"According to the regulations, voters are required to put their hand in both boxes and drop a small rubber ball in either one. The inside of each box is supposed to be coated with felt, to deaden the sound of the rubber ball; actually, the Communists in many cases have slipped off the felt coat of the 'enemy' box in order to learn the identity of those voting against the regime."

https://archive.org/details/communisttakeove545502unit

Mayne's politics aren't easy to pin down. He edited a conservative magazine, but also one associated with the Fabians, and another aligned with the anti-Stalinist left. His main focus seems to have been European integration. In any case he certainly wasn't friendly to "Marxism-Leninism."

Taylor's politics, assuming they're relevant (assuming he does provide a source for Mayne), seem to have been vaguely socialist. He was sympathetic to the USSR but not to Stalinism.

We can only guess at the politics of the Albanian clerk quoted by Kersten, but the quote was used for anti-communist ends and Kersten himself was certainly anti-communist.

Whether these accounts are the truth, contained only a kernel of truth, or were made up out of whole cloth, is up to the reader to decide, since Hoxha's Albania is a relic of history and can't be observed by us.

Whether it matters is another matter.

Ismail 05/01/15 (Fri) 08:59:11 No.2470

File: 1430470751352.jpg (118.38 KB, 424x604, 106:151, 63731029466316903183270.jpg)

First off, the initial quote is mistaken: the Democratic Front list won 93% of the vote, not 86%. As for the means of holding the vote in that election, Miranda Vickers, an anti-communist, writes that "each voter was given a small rubber ball stamped with a black eagle. This was then dropped into the voter's chosen box: a red one for the Front, and a black one for nay individual candidate outside the Front. The voter had to put his or her hand into both boxes, to avoid people knowing where their vote had been cast." ("The Albanians: A Modern History," 1999, p. 164.) Since the initial quote speaks of "subsequent referenda" and points out that paper ballots weren't used for reasons of illiteracy, we can guess that the 1950, 1954 and possibly 1958 elections used balls as a method. This means that in the 1960s, 70s and 80s paper ballots were used (since illiteracy was largely overcome in the 50s.)

From about 1945-1951 there were various efforts made to overthrow the government by both "parliamentary" and armed means. Reactionary elements spread blatant lies to different segments of the population to get them to revolt. At the urging of right-wing "communists" who appealed for "national unity" the Front's list of candidates in 1945 actually contained some anti-communists, leading to instances where voters refused to vote, demanding instead that the Front put forward a different candidate who would consistently uphold its program. Regardless, the general consensus of those observing the 1945 election was that the result more or less represented the wishes of the Albanian people. The Democratic Front was the successor to the National Liberation Front, which led the anti-fascist struggle.

As for the Korça clerk's testimony, the first quote isn't anything special. From the 1950 election onwards there were only single candidates in each electoral district, chosen months beforehand in mass meetings in which the Party and mass organizations put them forward and their merits and viability discussed. The day when people actually went out to vote was more or less a formality, and since candidates invariably swore to uphold the constitution and the cause of socialism (whether they belonged to the Party or not), an open declaration as to who held state power (i.e. "the people," workers, peasants and the new intelligentsia derived from both) is hardly relevant, especially in conditions where reaction still hoped to cause incidents during the voting.

So basically you're trying to impugn the whole electoral process based on quotes that, if true, only hold true for a specific period and which have a clear historical context. It also seems silly to think that balls dropped in opposing boxes being heard had any appreciable effect on the outcome of elections considering that in the 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982 and 1987 elections 100% of those who voted chose the candidates of the Democratic Front, and presumably all of those were done by the traditional method of a paper ballot.