 During this period and despite his great age, Ermenji made a major contribution to the establishment of Albanian national sentiment through a series of conferences in the entire country.In the problematic 1996 elections, he contested the results and boycotted the new parliament even though his party was to gain through their pre-electoral alliance with the governing Democratic party.In a speech he denounced the elections as stolen and called the then president Sali Berisha a "Diktator Qesharak" (Roughly in English