Muhaxhiri: Parties make campaign promises without basis or a plan

Political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri told Kosovo Online that during election campaigns parties make grand promises, but once they come to power they find excuses for failing to deliver—such as claims that the opposition did not support certain measures, that there were internal problems, or that a global crisis intervened.

This time as well, he believes, voters will largely not believe everything that is being said.

Muhaxhiri points out that experience from previous elections shows that nearly 90 percent of major campaign promises were not fulfilled once parties assumed power.

“Whatever they say should be taken with a grain of salt and discounted by half. They are merely making promises without any foundation or concrete plan, without telling us how they intend to implement them step by step, gradually—which is the most important thing. Voters will cast their ballots through complex psychological mechanisms: sometimes they vote for the least bad option, and sometimes for a personality rather than for a plan,” Muhaxhiri notes.

In this campaign as well, he assesses, there is no indication that parties have prepared well to introduce a new model or make a step forward. Instead, everyone has reverted to traditional, typical political campaigns—meaning that things are likely to remain largely the same.