VEFA and Kamberi in negotiations over markets. Another meeting expected in Vlora Vehbi Alimuca: We discussed dividing up the areas of influence page 13 VEFA and Kamberi in negotiations over markets. Another meeting expected in Vlora The pyramid schemes strike a deal Vehbi Alimuca: We discussed dividing up the areas of influence page 13

Between polio and Miss Europe, local elections are becoming a nuisance for Albanians. Europe is present in all three cases, but Albania still cannot find a remedy. Everyone talks about the elections, but no one knows exactly why they are actually being held. The PD cannot explain that to them. Its election staff has started up its old routine. It opens campaign season with committees to vet people’s credentials, balloons, a president and music, fairs and seminars, programmes about the dictatorship and development plans. You only have to watch one news bulletin to understand that the PD has calmly opened its old drawers of visions and television terror. By now, it is not capable of anything else. To be fair, the PD is acting this way also because it feels no competition. It neither touches nor listens to the opposition. This opposition is not in Parliament, but it is not outside it either; it has no trade unions, nor even a minute on Albania’s only television channel. Above all, this opposition cannot find its own identity and is biting itself in a merciless internal struggle. Only twenty days remain until the local elections, and yet Albania seems as if its elections were still twenty months away. The PS, the Centre Bloc, the opposition Right or Left do nothing but complain and make appeals to the people: “Give us money for your future.” But the people have put their money for their future into VEFA and Sudja, while waiting to see whether the opposition might offer them a less adventurous alternative. And that is not all. Albanian voters are sceptical. They still cannot understand the opposition’s “game.” Their optimism is fading, and they cannot tell whether this opposition wants to take part in the elections or not. The Albanian opposition has really become like those handicapped children who want to be like those handicapped children who want to be like those handicapped children who want to run and do not know how. If it really wanted to enter the elections, how could it offer its electorate nothing but complaints about how to offer its electorate nothing but complaints, statements about the West, weeping and insults, statements about the West, weeping and insults, insults, statements about the West, weeping and insults. To be fair, so far those in power have had to respond to only two opposition issues: the centres and kiosks, and to hope that after 20 October their opponents will finally abandon the thesis of self-restraint. Their exclusion and embrace thesis is one of inclusion. Of course, ordinary Albanians are waiting. They are waiting for a party to emerge one day that will not engage in political folklore, but will tell them how it will tackle polyclinics, crime and corruption; how it will eliminate poligjel, crime and corruption; how it will close down and remove the rubbish and the lights, so that people have water and there is no rubbish and coffee. So far, no good party has emerged for them, because Albanian politics has been seized by politics.

We are against the imprisonment of commissioners Harens: Allocation of television airtime is not fair page 3

Sanxhaku: I have not met Nehat Kulla page 2

The contestants leave Albania drunk page 7

Greece will reinforce its police forces on the tourist island of Corfu by sending 50 special security officers following the killing of a British tourist by a gang that attacked his yacht, the Ministry of Public Order said on Monday. The killing has also prompted Britain to warn its citizens on the Ionian island about the danger posed by boat thieves, who are believed to come from neighboring Albania. “Within the next few days, 50 members of the police special forces will be sent to Corfu to help secure the borders,” a ministry official said. He said the police officers, who will wear bulletproof uniforms and other special equipment, will patrol the entire island and cooperate with the coast guard. “They will stay for as long as necessary,” he added. The advisory issued by the British Embassy in Athens warns tourists visiting Corfu by boat to stay in ports where their vessels can be guarded, and says that tourists should avoid unsecured areas from midnight until 6 a.m. Ministry officials said Greece is working with Interpol in an effort to prevent the sale in Albania of around 100 boats believed to have been stolen from Greek ports, mainly in Corfu. They said Interpol officials are currently in Albania, cooperating with local authorities in an effort to prevent the boats from being sold. Reuters

Ferdinand Kamberi and Vehbi Alimuça yesterday at the Agro-Food Fair ’96. photo R. TASHO