Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA), 98-11-23

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From: The Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) Home Page at <http://www.telpress.it/ata>

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

CONTENTS

[01] Albanian Government analyses development of constitutional referendum

[02] Kosova chief negotiator rejects Serbian president's draft

[03] River Drino floods national road causing traffic jam near Gjirokaster

[04] 63% of voters turned out in district level

[05] 92 % of voters in Korce say 'Yes' to Constitution of Albania

[06] ATA to currently preside Association of Balkan News Agencies

[07] Voter turnout in Kavaje district 48-50%

[08] EU adopts fund for construction of Rrogozhine-Lushnje and Vore-Sukth roads

[09] Incidents during Sunday's voting - Ministry of Public Order

[10] Untaxed imports take 29 % of total imports in a ten-month period

[11] Final voting results for Constitution in Vlore district confirmed

[12] Three important players leave "Teuta" football team

[13] Voting result in Kukes town-halls confirmed

[14] River Drino water level falls, traffic restarts

[15] Japanese government finances three Albanian NGO projects

[16] Dollar as against 142.5 leks

[17] Fushe Arrez-Kukes and Burrel-Peshkopi roads unblocked

[18] Final results of referendum confirmed in five town-halls

[19] DP rejects official results on referendum

[20] Referendum was a laudable process - Everts

[21] Referendum expressed will of Albanians for stability

[22] Some 1.30 million ECU for work supervising in north-south corridor

[23] Treasury bonds: Percentages of interest from 23.3% in 24.8%

[24] Referendum attended by 53% Albanians - SP

[25] Turnout in voting is 54.5%, 93% of them favoured Constitution

[26] CEC keeps gathering voting results

[27] Final results of voting in Berat prefecture

[28] Voter turnout in Vlore is 65%

[29] Voter turnout in Fier 58.5 %

[30] European observers: Referendum ran fairly

[01] Albanian Government analyses development of constitutional referendum

PM Majko appreciated especially the mass participation of Albanian citizens in the referendum for the Constitution as an expression of the demand of all the Albanian people to construct a state on sound foundations, a civil society based on democratic rules and laws.

Majko congratulated in particular the ministers of Local Government, Public Order and Defence, and deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta who managed, in conformity to the law, in a short period of time and in difficult conditions, to coordinate the whole work and to bear the main wight in the organization of the referendum, which may be considered as one of the well- organized democratic processes in Albania.

The cabinet members spoke of the importance of the work to be made until the completion of the whole process for the referendum, when the central voting commission will announce the official final result.

The report says that the Government appeals to everybody, medias and political forces to be truthful in maximum in their information for the public.

Respecting the numerous and right concerns of the citizens who were denied of the right to vote because of irregularities in the lists, the Government voiced publicly its commitment through the Local Government Ministry, not only to verify the irregularities and the respective responsibilities but also to adopt all the measures so that none of the citizens be denied the right to vote in the future./pas/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[02] Kosova chief negotiator rejects Serbian president's draft

Kosova chief negociator, academician Fehmi Agani considered Serbian President, Milutinovic's draft on Kosova and his invitation for talks as not serious.

"That draft does not exist for us and it can not be a starting-point for negotiations. Surely, Albanians will not go to such talks," Agani said.

He said that "Milutinovic's proposal aims to legalise Kosova status according to the Serbian Constitution of 1990, which is constitutionalization of hegemony and sanction. Therefore, Albanians have boycotted it and today, they have fewer reasons to accept such resolutions as the one proposed by Serbian draft."

"This project not only minimizes Kosova's position to an absurd degree, but also tries to devaluate Kosova presenting its issue as a problem having to do with relations between ethnic groups. This is a trap, which Albanians will avoid," Agani added.

"Militinovic's proposal is also a reaction towards some progress in Hill's draft," Agani said. /dast/lola/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[03] River Drino floods national road causing traffic jam near Gjirokaster

According to police, the inundation has made impossible for small cars to pass the road in 2 km. On both sides of the blocked road, there are scores of vehicles waiting for the water level to fall.

With the heavy rain falls which started two days ago in Gjirokaster, according to meteorologists, the water level has not tendency to fall. Police have taken measures to avoid any accident, said the spokesman of the police commissariat.

Almost every year, this road segment gets inundated by waters of the River Drino after heavy rain falls, which is characteristic for Gjirokaster during winter, and ranks first on national level. /a.ke/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[04] 63% of voters turned out in district level

Latest reports from Vlore Prefecture confirm that the turnout in Sunday's voting in referendum for the Constitution in Vlorr district was 63%.

Secretary General of the Prefecture, Arqile Lici said that final result for the town was 59.5%. Processing voting protocols data from city polling station commissions results that over 90% of the voters said "Yes" to the Constitution, also high results are expected from district communes and town-halls. /y.pa/lola/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[05] 92 % of voters in Korce say 'Yes' to Constitution of Albania

The chairman of the district voting commission, Gezim Spaho, told ATA that after examining the results by the voting commissions in the town-hall of Korce, it comes out that the turnout has been over 62.3 per cent of the listed voters and over 92 per cent of them have voted in favour of the new constitution.

The turnout in some communes of the district of Korce that have closed the protocols and sent them to the district voting commission, has been satisfactory taking into account the cold weather and the snow falls during all Sunday.

According to the protocols brought to the central voting commission of the district, the turnout in commune Mollaj has been 51.3 per cent and 96 percent of them have voted in favour of the constitution, in the commune of Bulgarec have taken part in the voting 55.9 per cent of the registered voters and 70 per cent of them have voted for the Constitution, in commune of Drenove the turnout was 69.2 with 72 per cent of them saying 'Yes' to the Constitution.

According to Mr Spaho efforts are being made that during Monday, the protocols and other voting materials be taken from the remote mountain communes of the district despite the bad weather.

Operational information show that the turnout in Korce district communes has been massive. In Pogradec, the voters' turnout was 65 % and over 80 % of them have voted for the Constitution, in Kolonje district, the turnout was 66 % of the eligible voters and over 80 % of them have approved the Constitution, in Devoll district the turnout was 53 % and over 70 per cent of them have said 'yes' to the constitution, the district of Korce had a turnout of 62 % with 85 % cent of them saying 'yes' to the constitution. /pas/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[06] ATA to currently preside Association of Balkan News Agencies

ATA took over the presidency of the ABNA from the Bulgarian Telegraphic Agency (BTA.)

The rotating presidency lasts a 6-month term for each agency participating in ABNA. On this occasion, Albania will host the meeting of the 8th General Assembly of the ABNA, due in October of the coming year, in Tirane. ATA will direct for the coming 6 months the projects in the field of the relations among the national news agencies of the Balkan countries.

The first important project is the meeting soon of the 10th Commission of the European Parliament in Brussels, in which the talks will have their most important stage, that is, the realisation of the project DIAVOS, a joint project for the creation of a Balkan Data Bank.

President of ABNA will be the General Director of the Albanian Telegraphic Agency, Frrok Çupi.

ABNA, an organization of national news agencies of the Balkan countries (ATA, ANA, Anatoly Ajance, MPA, BTA, MPB and Tanjug,) was established three years ago. Its Assembly functions on the basis of a statute, whose aim is the Balkan cooperation in the field of information and to preparing the projects for a further perfection of technology and reporting. /s.s./xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[07] Voter turnout in Kavaje district 48-50%

Chairman of the district voting commission, Ismail Kadiu told ATA that round 48-50% of 50.994 voters, included in the final voting lists in the district of Kavaje, turned out.

Voting protocols with the final voting results for the referendum for Rrogozhine town-hall and four other district communes were handed over to the voting commission of Kavaje district till 11.00, on Monday. According to these voting protocols result that out of 3006 voters, turned out in 9 polling stations of Rrogozhine, 2709 (over 90%) said "yes" to the new Constitution.

Also, final reports from the communes of Gose, Kryevidh, Luzi i Vogel and Helmes show that 89-94% of the participators said "Yes" to the Constitution.

Kadiu said that the voting commission is processing the data of Kavaje town-hall and four other local communes, which is going to be finished within 14.00, on Monday. /pas/lola/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[08] EU adopts fund for construction of Rrogozhine-Lushnje and Vore-Sukth roads

The contract for the roads, signed in Tirane on October 2, envisages rehabilitation of Rrogozhine-Lushnje road to be realised by the Macedonian company Granit within 22 months, with a fund of 13.5 million ECU and the construction of the new road, Vore-Sukth, which will be constructed by company Italstrade, with a fund of 3.5 million ECU. /pas/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[09] Incidents during Sunday's voting - Ministry of Public Order

Spokesman of the Ministry of Public Order told ATA that he was arrested, because he exerted pressure to the voting commission and the voters. March last year, citizen Hila escaped from the prison of Lezhe, where he was serving his term of 25-years penalty for killing. At the moment of arrest he carried a pistol and a cartridge clip.

Also, Preng Engjell Bushi, 26, citizen of Lac, fired into the air near polling station No.4, in Lac at 15.30. He is wanted by the police.

Citizen Rudolf Gjergj Bani, carrying a TT pistol near polling station No.33, was taken to Commissariat in Korce at 17.45.

While in Tirane, citizen Agron Ramazan Hoxha, 44, was taken to Commissariat No.3, because he was violating the law in a polling station. /s.s./lola/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[10] Untaxed imports take 29 % of total imports in a ten-month period

The value of untaxed imports takes about 29 % of the total value of imports. According to statistics of the General Customs Department, the untaxed imports in Albania over 1997 took nearly 37 % of the total of imports.

As compared with the past year, the percentage of the untaxed goods entering Albania fell by 8 per cent this year but it is still high, although the customs duty is not applied in the recent months for machineries and equipment in some sectors in Albania. /pas/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[11] Final voting results for Constitution in Vlore district confirmed

Results show that voter turnout in 70 polling stations of the town was 59%, out of whom 94.4% said "Yes" to the Constitution.

62% of the eligible voters turned out in the communes and town-halls of the district and 94.8% of them said "Yes" to the Constitution. /pas/lola/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[12] Three important players leave "Teuta" football team

The sports commentator, Xhevahir Kapllani, told ATA that Kapllani's contract with "Teuta" finishes at the end of this football term, and his transfer has come as a result of the disagreements he had with one of the leaders of "Teuta" sports-club.

Xhevahir Kapllani, aged 24, is one of the main protagonists of Durres football team. "Teuta" is listed in the 11th place in the qualification table of this year championship.

Some 6 football players have left "Teuta" since the beginning of the actual football term. Several weeks ago three players were not allowed to play in the team because they were called to preform the military service. /pas./A.A/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[13] Voting result in Kukes town-halls confirmed

According to the municipal voting commission chairman, Azem Elezi, the number of the registered voters in that municipality was 9 424, and 3 724 of them or 40 per cent of the total number have voted.

Elezi said that the voting process has been calm, without incidents and the opposition representatives in the commission have signed the protocols together with their remarks.

The results of the voting from the district communes, except for two of them, have not reached the district voting commission yet because of the bad weather. /pas/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[14] River Drino water level falls, traffic restarts

Groups from the road traffic police are caring for the normalization of the traffic, because there was a heave traffic jam and a long line of vehicles waiting to move on both sides of the road during the flood, the Gjirokaster police spokesman told ATA.

In the meantime the weather is very bad, and according to the meteorologists, the rains will start soon.

The heavy snow falls in the northern Greece, in the mountains of which are the sources River Drino (a branch of River Vjosa), have affected the increase of Drino water level. /pas/A.A/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[15] Japanese government finances three Albanian NGO projects

This agreement was signed by Akihiko Ishimoto, first secretary of Japanese Embassy in Wien, the Embassy responsible for Albania, and the chairmen of three NGOs in Tirane (the JICA Alumni Albania, the Albanian Disabled Rights Foundation and Population International Service), during a visit Ishimoto had on November 18-20 in Tirane.

"The three projects, to be financed by Japanese government, have to do with improvement of the conditions in "Siri Kodra" school, support for the factory producing wheelchairs for disabled persons and a campaign of making the people conscious how to prevent AIDS in Albania," Valdet Kodra, chairman of the JICA Alumni Albania told ATA.

The three organisations, which signed the agreement, will benefit 1 million Austrian shillings for these projects. This is the first Japanese contribution to NGO programs in Albania. /A.KE/lola/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[16] Dollar as against 142.5 leks

Currency	Rate
$US		142.50
DM		 84.80
LIT(1000)	 85.40
GRD(100)	 49.90

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[17] Fushe Arrez-Kukes and Burrel-Peshkopi roads unblocked

But the traffic in these roads is difficult and because of this reason the sector of road maintenance has warned the drivers to travel with chains. /s.s/A.A/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[18] Final results of referendum confirmed in five town-halls

The town-hall	number of voters	"Yes" to Constitution
GJIROKASTER	58%			98,5 %
LIBOHOVE	59,2%			88,64%
PERMET		72,2%			89,9%
TEPELENE	68,6%			91,65%
MEMELIAJ	66,5%			92,7%

According to the above source, the voting process-verbals of these town-halls have been signed by all the commission members. The process- verbal from the town-hall of Kelcyre has not been presented yet, and the final documentation of the communes in the three districts of the prefecture is not compiled due to the difficulties created by the bad weather. /a.ke/mt/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[19] DP rejects official results on referendum

"The people's participation in this referendum, according to the reports we have from the process-verbals, has been around 38%," said the DP head, Sali Berisha.

Meanwhile, the latest statement which arrives from the Ministry of Local Government, is that of Sunday afternoon, according to which the participation of voters in the Constitution Referendum reached 50.14% till 17:30. Also, from today's information of voting commissions in districts, it is reported that: the turnout in Kukes was 40%, in Gjirokaster 58%, in Tepelene 68%, in Permet 72.2%, in Vlore 59%, in Kavaje 50%, while in Korce 62.3%. /lh/mt/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[20] Referendum was a laudable process - Everts

He confirmed this at a meeting on Monday afternoon with speaker of Parliament Skender Gjinushi, on the occasion of handing over a logistic aid for this institution, according to the parliament's Press Office.

Everts also considered very fruitful the cooperation between the party representatives in the electoral commissions and called it a big step forward.

Gjinushi, after evaluating OSCE's aid and cooperation, in favour of democratic developments at home, thanked Everts for the donation to parliament. /dast/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[21] Referendum expressed will of Albanians for stability

TIRANA, Nov. 23 (ATA) - By A. Haxhiu: The referendum process on the new Albanian Constitution was in the center of the meeting that the Albanian Parliament Speaker Skender Gjinushi held Monday with the Cypriote deputies, Haxhidimitriu, member of the monitoring delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Kiprianu, member of the OSCE delegation, monitors in yesterday's Constitution Referendum.

The Cypriote deputies considered the referendum process as very civilized and democratic. They stressed that "the Constitution Referendum expressed will of Albanians for stability and prosperity."

Speaker Gjinushi on his side, thanked the Cypriote deputies for their participation as monitors in the referendum process.

According to Gjinushi, after yesterday's vote in favour of the Constitution, the processes in the country will surely experience good developments. The Albanians testified that they want the state institutions to function better to guarantee their fundamental rights because they want the country to be soon integrated into the democratic European family.

Gjinushi also considered as very important the strengthening of inter- parliamentary relations for the good use of both countries.

The deputies Haxhidimitriu and Kiprianu voiced their will to strengthen inter-parliamentary relations and on behalf of the Cypriote Parliament Speaker, they invited Speaker Gjinushi for a working visit in Cyprus. /dast/mt/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[22] Some 1.30 million ECU for work supervising in north-south corridor

The signing was made on July 11, 1998 and has a timespan of 45 months.

The Italian Company will operate the supervision in Fushe-Kruje- Mamurras road, while the German Company DIW-GICO will operate it in Rrogozhine-Lushnje road.

The French "Scetaurote" company, with a fund of 1.5 million ECU financed by the PHARE program, will supervise the work in Durres-Kapshtice road segment. /l.h/A.A/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[23] Treasury bonds: Percentages of interest from 23.3% in 24.8%

In general the interest percentages for the treasury bonds have fallen from one month to the other. In the beginning of this year the percentages of interest for the treasury bonds have been 32.4%, 34.1% and 34.7%.

The interest percentage of the treasury bonds

Treasury bond		Percentage of interest
3 month period maturity		23.3%
6 month period maturity		24.3%
12 month period maturity	24.8%

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[24] Referendum attended by 53% Albanians - SP

The Socialist Party (SP) of Albania, currently in power, declared on Monday that "Sunday's referendum process on the new Constitution was held normally and that more than 53% of the enrolled population took part in the voting, while over 90 percent voted in its favour".

The socialists said that also the representatives of the OSCE and the international organisations share the opinion that everything ran normally.

SP Coordination secretary Gramoz Ruci told reporters at a news conference at his party headquarters that "a part of the International Community foresaw riots on the referendum day, but that day showed that the state can cope with any situation when it engages in".

He stressed that the "percentage of participation in yesterday's voting would have reached 75% if the voters' lists had not been manipulated by several DP local government officials."

The socialist secretary did not show worry about the fact that the DP will not recognise the new constitution and that the commissions' democrat leaders will not sign the voting minutes.

But, while the two opposite camps issue their results, the official turnout on the Constitutional referendum is expected to be made known this evening, as CEC chairman Daver Cano told reporters yesterday. /lh/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[25] Turnout in voting is 54.5%, 93% of them favoured Constitution

Peja said that the participation in voting in the town-hall of Elbasan, Cerrik and Belsh has respectively been 42.8%, 63.7% and 53.3%, of which more than 92 percent said "yes" to the Constitution.

According to him, out of 20 communes of the districts, the results from only two communes have not reached the commission yet. The number of eligible voters in these communes is small. /dast/mt/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[26] CEC keeps gathering voting results

Many polling stations have issued the results and submitted the reports and the whole documentation to the respective town-halls and communes, the CEC secretary Shahin Bistri told ATA.

"The more advanced districts in handing over the reports have been Sarande, Gjirokaster, Esrseke and several communes of Kruje, Kavaje, Elbasan.

However, there is yet no exact information as the districts' commissions are working out and verifying the materials," added Bistri.

"The reports of the districts that have worked out the vote turnout are expected to arrive this afternoon while those of other districts tomorrow.

In order to ensure a quicker collection of the material basis, the Local Government Ministry has drafted a plan to gather them through helicopters, said Bistri. /lh/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[27] Final results of voting in Berat prefecture

Some 95.1% of the voters at prefecture level in the referendum said 'yes' to the Constitution. While on district scale, the figures are 94.5% in Berat, 96.6% in Skrapar and 95.9% in Kucove.

According to governor Gega, the representatives of the opposition, who have complained for several irregularities in voting, did not accept to sign final reports of communes, mainly in the district of Berat. /lh/mt/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[28] Voter turnout in Vlore is 65%

VLORE, Nov 23 (ATA)-By H.Koci,

Voter turnout in Vlore prefecture on Sunday was 65%, 95 of whom said "Yes" to the constitution.

This was confirmed on Monday afternoon by local government leaders at a news conference.

The Vlore governor Tare Hamo confirmed that the voter participation in the Vlore district was 62%, of which 59.2% in the city and 64.3% in the countryside and of them 95% said "Yes" to the constitution.

He said that the voter turnout in the Sarande district was 70.4%, while in the district of Delvine 69.7 %.

Also thanking the DP participants in the commissions, Hamo said that "all possibilities exist to find a language of understanding and together, government coalition-opposition, cope with the challenges of the time". /dast/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[29] Voter turnout in Fier 58.5 %

The voter turnout in the referendum on the Constitution in the Fier district was 58.5%, of whom 92.8% said: "Yes" to the constitution, according to the Secretary General of the Fier prefecture, Ilir Dano.

He said that the voter turnout in the Fier town-hall was 56.1%, of whom 92.7% voted in favour of the constitution, while in the Patos community the participation reached 55.6%, of which 93% voted for the constitution.

Meanwhile in the Mallakaster district the voter turnout was 58,9% , of them 93.3% voted for the constitution.

At prefecture level, the participation was 61.9%, of whom 93.2% voted for the constitution, said Dano. /dast/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[30] European observers: Referendum ran fairly

The referendum on the Constitution was held under difficult circumstances and followed a campaign characterised by a political atmosphere of extreme polarisation. The leading opposition party, the Democratic Party, in spite of international appeals to participate, decided not to take part in the process, and called for a boycott of the Referendum. This jeopardised the secrecy of the vote, since mere participation in the vote could be seen as a public political act. It shifted the emphasis from the content of the Constitution to the referendum as such.

The referendum followed an open and transparent drafting process where advice on the constitution was taken from many sources, domestically as well as internationally.

The security situation in Albania is still precarious and raises concerns. The Government does not have full control over the whole country. Serious incidents occurred in the weeks leading up to the referendum. Overall, in spite of these circumstances the referendum was carried out in a peaceful manner throughout the country. Only isolated incidents of violence were reported during the vote. It was encouraging to note that all the parties called upon fulfilled their role in most voting commissions at local level. Despite the security considerations, observers were deployed throughout the country.

As in earlier elections the lack of accuracy in the Voters Lists was, still a problem. The discrepancy between the legal provisions for the right to vote and the modality for updating the Voters Lists should be removed. The legal right of an individual to be registered as a voter, and the provisions to remove a person from the Voters Lists should be clearly defined in particular for citizens living abroad, and all ambiguities in the process be removed. Accurate Voters Lists would be more easily extracted from a centralised civil register based upon actual residency of the citizens.

The very polarised political environment made fast and effective decision-making in the Central Voting Commission (CVC) difficult and hindered the organisation of this referendum. In particular protracted discussion on the educational TV slots brought the work of the CVC to a standstill for some time.

The disinformation on the contents on the constitution, the misrepresentation of the international representatives and unfounded allegations against the constitutional process but the Democratic Party are to be regretted.

The Constitutional Drafting Process

The Referendum was called by Presidential decree on 21 October, following the third and last reading of the Constitution by the Parliament. The drafting of the constitutions was done by a Parliamentary Commission. The Democratic Party (DP) did not participate in the drafting process inside and outside of the Parliamentary Commission, and the party has not been filling its seats in the Parliament since last July, despite the recommendations by the Tri-Parliamentary Mission (from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament) which visited Albania twice in 1998. There was continuous input from the Council of Europe Venice Commission in the drafts, and from the Administrative Centre for the Co-ordination of Assistance and Public Participation (ACCAPP) of the OSCE Presence. The DP did not comment fully on the content of the constitution until 8 November 1998 and centred its campaign on formalities or events of a more narrow political nature.

The Legal framework The Late Changes in the Law on Referenda

A number of amendments were made to the Law on Referenda on the 12 October 1998. One of these was to remove the requirement for 50% turnout for a valid vote. There is no set international standard for whether or not a turnout requirement should be applied. The difficulties in establishing reliable voters lists would also make a turnout threshold difficult to implement However. The late date for making such a change was unfortunate and raised accusations that the rules of the game were changed to ensure that the constitution would pass.

The Voters Lists

The turnout figure for the referendum became a contentious political issue in so much as the opposition wanted to show an effective boycott and the government a good support for the constitution. The accuracy of the voters Lists thus became a political issue, when attention should have been devoted to ensuring that all eligible voters be able to exercise their right to vote.

The legal provisions governing voter registration are unclear. The Law on Referenda gives all citizens of Albania over the age of 18 the right to vote. However, the Law on Elections to Local Government foresees, that when compiling the voters'lists, the municipalities should cross out the enlisted voters staying abroad. It is unfortunate that clear criteria for the citizens living abroad to maintain their registration do not exist.

The accuracy of the voters lists has indeed been a matter of concern in all previous elections in Albania. The high degree of internal and external migration and the lack of a reliable civil register has contributed to the low quality of the Voters Lists. To help improve the accuracy of the existing lists and to remove earlier mistakes such as double entries, registration of deceased people and to register the voters where they have their de facto residence, the Government introduced a procedure of house to house registration by groups of three persons representing both the Government and the opposition. However, the lack of clear criteria for the canvassing did not enable these groups to produce accurate lists of voters, particularly in the given time frame, and a consensus within the group does not to a sufficient degree protect the voters individual right to be registered.

The CVC issued a Decision on 19 November, allowing voters to register even on the day of the Referendum, to enfranchise voters that my mistake might have been left out of the lists.

The deadlines for establishing, posting and correcting Voters lists were extremely constrained, and in many areas they were not met.

The only long lasting solution to the problems with the Voters Lists will be to establish a centralised civil register, for instance on the basis of a census.Until such civil registers have been established, clear criteria for citizens registration - both in country as well as abroad - should be worked out.

The Legal Provisions for the Media

The Article 43 of the Law on elections to Local government states that the CVC ' shall organise unbiased programmes on Albania radio and television to educate the Albania population about the elections'.

The Democratic Party has interpreted this as giving the CVC an exclusive right to produce all voter education on Public TV, claiming that information on the content of the constitution as well as on the referendum process has to be approved by the CVC. Furthermore, the DP refused to accept some voter education programmes because they considered them as support of the referendum vote.

Despite acceptance of a reasonable Code of Conduct, agreed to by the parties after consultation with the OSCE Presence, that seemed to have solved the dispute, the DP chose to leave the CVC for a few days.

Even though it is any person's or party's right not to participate in the referendum there is no reason for accepting a boycott of the process as an alternative of the same prominence as a 'yes' or 'no' vote. The programmes actually transmitted on public TV were in content neutral information on how to exercise the democratic right to vote, and the parties were free to advocate for a boycott alternative in the time allocated for their campaign.

Voting Commissions

By decision of the Parliament, the composition of the CVC was the same as the Central Election Commission formed during the local by- elections earlier this year. All election commissions included multi - party representation, in most instances with equal number of members from the government coalition and from the opposition.

In the highly polarised context of Albania, this structure has led to a number of deadlocks, in particular when the DP representatives on the CVC have not signed the decisions and have therefore contested their legality. Much time was lost in debates in the CVC over how best to handle some of the contentious issues in the organisation of the Referendum, such as the media issues and the updating of the Voters lists.

The Campaign

When the Democratic Party decided not to take part in the voting, the emphasis shifted from the content of the Constitution to the referendum as such and to possible turnout figure, and the campaign was carried out in a polarized political climate.

The campaign environment allowed for all sides to publicly advocate their position if they so chose. However, the activities and positions of the two major political forces - the government coalition and the opposition Democratic Party dominated the campaign. The former chose to emphasize public education on the content of the draft over direct political party support for a ''Yes'' vote, and managed to adhere to this strategy in most cases.

Opponents to the referendum were able to hold public rallies and demonstration, and their position was widely disseminated through a variety of media. Their campaign was highly rhetorical against the government and against''foreign interests''. At time this rhetoric was both intimidating and misleading to the public. In particular, attacks against international organisation or misrepresenting the views of international representatives had to be regretted. The general lassitude of the public due to the continued polarised and aggressive political environment is a new trend which should be seriously considered by all political forces.

Media

Voters had access to a broad range of views on both the State TV and Radio and through a variety of private media outlets, including TV, radios and newspaper. Opponents to the referendum were entitled to both programming and spot time on the State television (although some of it was aired very late in the evening) and has access to private TV stations. While party publications strongly campaigned in favour of the respective party's position the independent media were generally more balanced.

The State TV channel TVSH had a quite balanced attitude from the beginning of the campaign until a few days before the referendum day.During the last days it started to give more space to the governmental position, specifically in the news programs. The special campaign programmes followed the rules defined by the Central Voting Commission, whereas the news favoured the Government's point of view. Out of the total time of 1300 minutes devoted to the referendum, 25% was given in favour of the constitution, 17% against (including boycott) and the rest was neutral.

The Day of Referendum

Overall, the voting on the day of referendum was carried out in a peaceful manner throughout the country. Incidents of violence have been very few. Due to the provisions for registering as a voter even on election day, the number of disenfranchised voters was reduced. However, the implementation was not fully consistent throughout the country. The process of voting on the referendum day was in most places technically correct, but still a number of shortcomings were reported.

The boycott by Democratic Party(DP) has as a consequence that the voters were deprived of the secrecy of their vote;turning up in a polling station already shows that the recommendations of the DP have not been followed. Since the ID is stamped after the voting the participation can even be checked after the referendum day.

The campaign silence of 24 hours prior to the referendum was broken by both sides, by printing of campaigning article in the newspapers of the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party. Of other irregularities reported, the following were the most prominent:

-In many places the polling stations opened more than one hour after the prescribed opening hour.

-Presence of unauthorised persons inside the polling stations where reported by many, but mainly without clear evidence of intimidation.

-Family voting is still wide spread.

-The reconciliation procedure for the count was not clear and was often not adhered to

-The physical access to polling stations was difficult in many instances

-The ID cards did not always get stamped to indicate that the voter had voted

A few instances of violence were reported.

It was encouraging to note that domestic non-partisan observes were present in a fairly large number of polling stations. In most polling stations, but not all, the co-operation between the polling station commission members was reported to be good. /dast/lm/

From the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) Home Page at http://www.telpress.it/ata

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