22 MARCH APPEALS TO CONSCIENCE... VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY! DEMOCRACY IN ALBANIA CANNOT BE BUILT BY A SINGLE PARTY, NO MATTER HOW POWERFUL IT MAY BE

22 MARCH CALLS FOR CONSCIOUSNESS... THE SOCIAL-COMMUNISTS WILL WIN ONLY IF THEY LOSE — PAUSE FOR A MOMENT IN FRONT OF THE BALLOT BOX AND REMEMBER WHY THESE ELECTIONS ARE BEING HELD... WHO WILL WE VOTE FOR TOMORROW — 22 MARCH CALLS FOR CONSCIOUSNESS... — THE SOCIAL-COMMUNISTS WILL WIN ONLY IF THEY LOSE — PAUSE FOR A MOMENT IN FRONT OF THE BALLOT BOX AND REMEMBER WHY THESE ELECTIONS ARE BEING HELD... Sunday’s elections are extraordinary, not only because of their importance. They are so in terms of timing as well. If things were normal, we would not go to the ballot box on 22 March, but in three years’ time. It is a pity that tomorrow’s elections are compulsory. And it is dictatorship that makes them compulsory. A dictatorship that will survive only when we break with communism. 22 March calls for consciousness... On 31 March last year, we made a mistake when we gave power to the communists. More precisely, they stole and seized that power, as only communists know how to seize it. And it was better that they seized it within the transitional span from March to March, because the communists made this people aware; they taught them that those who ruled for half a century cannot rule in the next century. But above all, the PP(S) communists taught this people that they cannot hold power, and therefore they will enter the elections of 22 March in order to lose. That is the command of the times, and on 31 March last year the communists could not have understood it then. Though it is better that things turned out this way; they needed to keep the power for one more year in order to understand that tomorrow, on 22 March, they will win only if they LOSE. This was finally admitted by the communist leader, Fatos Nano. “What do you promise us if you win?”, he was asked at an election meeting these days. “We promise nothing..., except unity[t?]” (!), he declared. So the communists’ spell of loyalty has run out. Fifty years of loyalty?!! And it is a pity, because now even promises have been made!... For that reason we will vote on 22 March for their end. Perhaps a good part of the communists will also vote this time against themselves. By voting for the opposition, they are also voting for their own strength. So tomorrow, Albanians together will remove communism from power. This does not mean, however, that communism will die on 22 March. Its death will be slow and difficult... 22 March calls for consciousness... If the social-communists were thought to have won, then these elections would not need to be held, because they would already have won. And they could have kept power for another three years, but they cannot. 22 March calls for consciousness... The communists, having won, are leaving power with determination, because they cannot hold it even for a moment. And it is essential that everyone understands this. By voting against them, you are at the same time voting for their downfall. Stop for a moment in front of the ballot box and remember why these elections are being held... They will also hasten the death of the social-communists. 22 March calls for consciousness. YLLI RAKIPI

THE ARMY, HUNGRY FOR DEMOCRACY The battle of the political forces on the electoral path is now burning fiercely. Who will control the great treasure of votes? In this context, the thousands of votes of military personnel carry a highly attractive weight. Who will they declare for in the current elections? The flow of guesses may fluctuate considerably, but one thing is clear. The overwhelming majority of the army will cast its votes into the opposition’s electoral basket. This reality has recently injected the microbe of fury into the PS. Its leaders are openly expressing their jealousy. They have also sharpened their tactics. On the one hand, through their “colorless” government, they are using the payment of new salaries for the army precisely now, on the eve of the vote. Are they saving it a little for a big pact? 1492, according to the status of the serviceman, comes out at the extreme of the electoral battle? On the other hand, they accuse the opposition of wanting to involve the military in a “fascist”-type cleansing operation of deceit, should it win the elections. The socialist kitchen has invented who knows what, solely so that the soldiers return as unformed children to the adored mother PP(S). The military electorate is closely and militarily defined; in PS form it has remained a calculated partisan contingent and a mechanical force, so representative of the military sphere, which keeps the direction of the military sphere occupied, having sent them into internal exile in privileged posts, while the dissidents have disappeared, former employees of the state security ministry, at the same time through careerist inertia, servility and, of course, wavering. No matter how much it is hyped up, this fanatical military phalanx and its whims have reduced the people’s hope to ashes, and PRS has made gold while living under the ruin of barbarism. Whom will the soldiers vote for? There can be no doubt. The government sleeves are rubbing together in vain[?]. When it comes to democracy, the soldier is never unpaid. He experiences it through his own high sense of responsibility. The thousands of votes will be gathered by the honest representatives of the people’s honor, as well as the democratic opposition, the country’s future.

“THE NEWSPAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY MUST AT LEAST KEEP PROFESSIONAL HONOUR!” — FIVE QUESTIONS TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PR, MR SABRI GODO — “Republika”: For “ZP”, especially lately, we have been very much in favour! Although it has become clear that the insults in “ZP” are actually praise, something still remains... S. Godo: It is one thing to deal with slander and another to argue the truth. But when it comes to “ZP”, slander and truth are the same thing! So it is not worth dealing with “Republika”. In any case, the newspaper seeks to inform about the truth. Take, for example, those empty claims that “ollo me “ZP””. S. Godo: No foreigner accompanied me, but according to “ZP” it turns out that at meetings with the people I supposedly had a foreigner at my side! Apparently, foreigners for “ZP” have become demons, and they can no longer even see them! If even the two young men from Tepelena have started to look like foreigners, that is not enough news to make anything of it. They are, as has been mentioned. “ZP” did not speak to me about those anonymous fires of “ZP”. Nobody has asked me questions like those of “ZP”, and if they had, I would have answered differently, in such a way that “ZP” would not have been able to publish them! In any case, “ZP” should preserve at least something of professional honour. “Republika”: Often your articles block you as Sabri the landowner, or mention the properties of Vranovica... S. Godo: According to the standards respected by the biography files of the communist administration, I was classified as middle-class uncle. Pluralism, apparently, has also highlighted the biographies of family ties, and that is a sign of the renewal of the PSI. “ZP” has been republishing biography files for 50 years; that is its job. At any rate, I am a member of a party whose programme states that it recognizes as property only the land the peasant possessed on the eve of collectivization. The land will be distributed according to the number of people and the difference will remain to be compensated within 10 years. If I had had landlord ambitions, I would have joined another party. “Republika”: The social-communists accuse you of separating the small parties from the declared opposition trio. S. Godo: Did “ZP” perhaps expect me to recommend voting for the small anti-opposition parties, for the parties created by the working cabinet! By singling out the PD-PR-PSD trio, I have in mind that the victory of this democratic bloc is not a defeat for any of the other truly opposition parties, which for the moment still have not had the chance to establish themselves. A year ago I said that even the pro-republican elections should vote for the Democratic Party, and I certainly did not mean to belittle myself. To grow as the right of democracy wins is the only hope for PS and “ZP”. “Republika”: Do you think that your CULT endangers democracy and the Albanian people, as “ZP” claims so much?! S. Godo: Why do I believe that “ZP” wanted to make a little journalistic humor with its colleagues? A newspaper boasts, even if harmlessly, when it cannot perform the role of a politician. Interview by YLLI RAKIPI

Speech by Mr Sabri Godo, delivered on TV at the close of the election campaign This campaign is ending with the clear conviction that we must vote for democracy. The communist structures that have ruled this country for 46 years must be finally removed. It is natural that the campaign should have been fierce, because this was not about a change of parties in power, but about replacing the political, economic and legal system of ideas, moving toward a new society, born for the human being. We are the last country in Europe to be making such a transition, and that is because the communist dictatorship here was more brutal and lasted longer than in the other Eastern countries. The Republican Party, which has been fighting for democracy for 15 months, with difficulty but without ever backing down, has long made clear how it believes Albania should become a free country and enter the path of civilized nations. The first condition is the liberation of society and of the individual, according to the most advanced standards, with a justice system that acts equally on everyone, with no revanchism, and that advances firmly toward democratic unity. The full restoration of individual freedom, as foreseen in the charters of the United Nations and the European Community, is also a sacred right of the citizen. Economic development, without which democracy would remain like a tree without roots, must be based on private initiative, as the only lever capable of releasing the nation’s productive energies, without disturbing the state’s role in the directions of the general social interest. Particular priority is required for the use, with recognition of the ownership rights over the land that each person had on the eve of collectivization, with technical and credit assistance, with the abolition of taxes as soon as possible, and with a number of other measures. Deep poverty and unemployment in the cities, as well as the many social problems of women, youth, former political prisoners, intellectuals, etc., will be addressed through reforms toward the free market and special laws. We ourselves will return to work under other conditions, but cooperation with the outside world will also be handled with great care. These main ideas are explained in detail in the Republican Party’s program. We now have 36 hours of rest ahead of us to calmly think about whom we should vote for. As the Republican Party, we have long said that, in the interest of the country, a coalition of opposition parties should have been created in order to defeat the social-communists once and for all. This coalition remained, more or less, only on the level of talk, without being made concrete by running common candidates. There has been much talk that the focus will deliberately be concentrated between the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party, denying the existence of the other opposition parties that now stand on an honest vote. In our political life, such concentration would be harmful and wrong, first because it would again lead to a two-party parliament, denying the pluralism that would make parliament a fuller representative of the people’s will. Second, given Albania’s conditions. Second, the lack of parliamentary pluralism would make coalition with the future government extremely difficult. Meanwhile, no single party, however large, can take on the solution of the very serious problems gathered together. All genuine opposition forces must coordinate nationally, in order to neutralize the social-communists’ counteroffensive after the elections and move the country forward. Anyone who does not understand this shows a lack of politics, to put it mildly. But if the opposition parties cannot reach a coalition over candidates, because of lack of time and other reasons, this necessary coalition can be achieved only by the people, by casting their vote for the opposition party they prefer most. This is by no means fragmentation. On the contrary, it is a strengthening of the democratic opposition. This is the only way to guarantee political stability in the next legislature. Vote for the Republican Party, which gives you security and will help the country with all its strength. On 23 March, for the first time in history, we will be a free people.

PEOPLE, PLEASE, READ THE REAL PROGRAM OF PS THE TWO PROGRAMS OF PP(S) Tomorrow is election day; it is clear that almost everyone agrees the party would not benefit from the programs, because they differ very little from one another. This idea has so thoroughly mixed up Mr. Spiro Dede that he broke his cosmic silence of a bundi-like strongman and told the press, just to emphasize this idea once again, and once again he went officially silent. However, there are enough signs to conclude that there are very small differences not only between the programs of the two parties, but that there is a party with two programs. This applies to the PKSH (one to be taken from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Protection, and one to be implemented in practice), but above all to the PSSH. With full transparency, the PSSH has published both of these programs in its press organs — ZP and “24 orë” — and tomorrow disappointed voters will have no reason to demand explanations as to why the first program was not implemented. The first (which we shall mark as P1) was published on the same day (which we shall mark as P2), with specific authors, the first organized, the second dispersed. It is not for the voters to struggle with it, as they too can see this program. The deformed combination of the ideals, “merits and practices” of the PP dressed in phraseology that seems contemporary, this program is more or less formulated as follows: I. THE REAL PROGRAM OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF ALBANIA It is almost one year since the first pluralist elections (P), in which the PSSH, although it took no part, won (P). During this year it established itself as the main political force of our society, the Socialist Party. (P1). It was created in June 1991 and legalized on 22 August 1991. Its important contribution in the sector of[?] the peaceful transition of the PP into the PS, and in many other aspects. (P2). Therefore, during the past year things truly improved (P1), especially human life, which can be taken for freedom (P2), but also got poorer; the economy has come to a standstill, unemployment is becoming alarming. Speculation, crime, inflation and prices, etc. (To be continued on page 4)