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Albanian Times, 96-05-27
Albanian Times
May 27, 1996
CONTENTS
[01] Socialists Boycott Elections
[02] President Berisha's First Comments on Socialist Boycott
[03] U.S. Backed Monitors Confirm Harassment During Poll
[04] Two More Parties Withdraw From Elections
[01] Socialists Boycott Elections
TIRANA, May 26 - Albania's main opposition Socialist Party
has withdrawn from the country's third post-communist election, accusing the
ruling party of intimidation. The main opposition Socialist Party was quoted
as saying at least ten of its members were arrested to intimidate voters.
Democratic Alliance party, the joint second largest opposition group, said
earlier it was also pulling out from the poll.
``We do not recognise the result of the elections whatever it is,''
chief
Socialist Party spokesman Kastriot Islami told a news conference. The centre-
right Democratic Alliance and centre-left Social Democrats held six seats each
in the 140-member parliament which was dissolved in
March. There was no immediate comment from President Sali Berisha's
Democratic Party. The Socialists alleged hundreds of representatives of
opposition parties in the electoral committees had been beaten and wounded,
detained and many polling stations had been closed since early in the day.
``With the full knowledge of the president of the republic, the vote has been
controlled and directed by the police, the secret police and gangs of the
Democratic Party,'' Islami said. He added voting had taken place ``in a
climate of terror.'' The Socialist Party urged the Central Electoral
Commission, in charge of election organisation, and the Constitutional Court,
to declare the poll invalid and to hold a fresh ballot ``under guaranteed
democratic conditions.'' There was no independent confirmation of the alleged
polling irregularities. (Albanian Times/Reuters/ANSA/AP)
[02] President Berisha's First Comments on Socialist Boycott
TIRANA, May 26 - In his first comments after the boycott of the elections by
the opposition, Albanian president Sali Berisha accused the Socialists of
organizing terrorist groups to undermine the poll. "The Socialists made their
decision to withdraw after...their sinister plots failed," Berisha told radio
Voice of America heard in Tirana. "We have full documentation on this
(activity)," Berisha added. Berisha also accused the Socialists of trying to
falsify ballot record forms. "The Socialist Party has distributed in the
entire country falsified forms and intended to announce forged voting results
tonight at 3 a.m. Faced with this situation, the central Election Commission
decided to change the color of the forms and the new forms were distributed
all over Albania today at 8 a.m.," Berisha said. Berisha added the Socialist
withdrawal will have a positive impact on the political stability of Albania.
He said he was convinced that the Socialist Party would head towards
disintegration. "The boycott does n
ot affect at all the honest vote counting and the fairness of the elections,"
Berisha stressed. (Albanian Times)
[03] U.S. Backed Monitors Confirm Harassment During Poll
TIRANA, May 26 - A U.S.-backed election monitoring group said
some incidents of threats and violence had occurred during Albania's general
election on Sunday, the first independent confirmation of harassment during
the ballot. The non-profit Society for Democratic Culture (SDC) was unable,
however, to back allegations of official nationwide intimidation made by most
of Albania's opposition parties, which pulled out of the election mid-way
through the voting. It could not say who was to blame for the incidents. The
month-long election campaign was plagued by claims and counter-claims of dirty
tricks, with repeated allegations by the ruling Democratic Party and the main
opposition Socialists during the past 24 hours of stabbings and beatings. The
SDC told Reuters it could confirm two violent attacks and one case
of
voter intimidation, all in the town of Berat, about 120 km (80 miles) south of
the capital Tirana. ``At 9.30 p.m. (1930 GMT) a Socialist member of the local
electoral committee in Berat was beaten up outside a polling centre and was
sent to hospital,'' said a spokeswoman for the SDC, a U.S.-financed group set
up to promote democracy in Albania. ``We think he has a broken nose.'' The
monitoring group also said a man in Berat had been shot at four times,
although some of the shots may have been blanks. No details on the man's
condition were available. The SDC could not confirm allegations by a Socialist
Party member that he had been severely beaten by police, allegedly because he
supported the Democrats' main rivals. In a news conference at Socialist Party
headquarters on Sunday,
26-year-old Bilal Semanaj, the bodyguard of Socialist chief spokesman
Kastriot Islami, showed reporters his heavily bruised back and thighs, which
he said resulted from ferocious police beatings. In addition to allegations
of physical attacks, opposition groups said they had been intimidated and
their representatives frequently denied access to the electoral committees,
which were set up to organise the poll and
designed to include representatives from across the political spectrum.
The SDC, which has election monitors across the small Balkan nation,
confirmed that a Socialist member of the electoral committee in Lushnja, 100
km (60 miles) south of Tirana, had been barred from re-entering the polling
station. In another polling station in Berat, voters had been harassed by
gangs of thugs, the SDC said. ``People said they were afraid and had been
threatened and intimidated by big men who told them whom to vote for,'' the
SDC spokeswoman said. (Courtesy of Reuters)
[04] Two More Parties Withdraw From Elections
TIRANA, May 26 - Two more Albanian opposition parties joined
the Socialists and center-right Democratic Alliance on Sunday, withdrawing
from the post-communist state's third general election, according to Reuters.
The center-left Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of the Right
said they had pulled out of the election because they claimed the poll was
illegal and the results would not be free and fair. (Albanian Times/Reuters)
This material was reprinted with permission of AlbAmerica Trade & Consulting
International. For more information on ATCI and the Albanian Times, please
write to AlbaTimes@aol.com
Copyright © ATCI, 1996
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