On May 9, "Vredi" (VLEN) officially graduates from a coalition into a single political party. Five Albanian political entities merge into one organisation. Mexhiti and Kasami are co-chairs. With that, the curtain falls on the era of fragmentation in Albanian politics.

What does it mean? What did it mean until now? Albanian politics in Macedonia was split between several parties and movements - DUI, BESA, the Alliance for Albanians, other smaller structures. Gradually, these five first came together in the "Vredi" coalition, and now into a single party. The question: is this a consolidation of the Albanian vote, or a centralisation of power?

Balkan experience shows that mergers like this usually have two sides. One is stability - one structure, one decision, fewer negotiations. The other is power concentrated in the hands of a few. On election day, five parties become one, and two co-chairs decide the candidate list. Internal party democracy? Starting at zero.

For North Macedonia this is a significant question. The Albanian voting bloc in the country has always relied on the option of choosing between several alternatives. From May 9, the choice - at least within this political bloc - is gone. Anyone who wants to be "VLEN" will have to play by the new party's rules.

DUI, which dominated Albanian politics for decades, still exists as a separate structure. But it too is in trouble - polls show its vote share dropping. In the coming years we may see polarisation between VLEN and DUI as the only serious players on the Albanian political stage.

Is that good? A hard question. One thing is certain - for ordinary Albanian voters in this region, elections with more options were a guarantee that someone was fighting for their vote. When only two parties are competing, each can treat its base as locked in. And then the question to ask is - who is actually representing the people?