The “Pandora’s box” is opened. Half of the loans taken out have not been repaid The Agricultural Bank is short 2.3 billion lekë out of 8 billion lekë in loans page 10

In the 20 October elections, no political force won, not even the DP itself. Everyone lost; even more, the civic responsibility of Albanians was lost. At a time when almost all Albanian citizens are dissatisfied with the current government, this very government was voted for. This means that in the 20 October vote, Albanians were unable to choose freedom. Not only the opposition category, but all categories find themselves in the same position. The citizens who took part in the vote did not dare to choose freedom. According to the figures, they make up about half the number of voters. More than half of this half voted for the DP. They generally belong to Berisha’s state administration and vote in favor under the weight of the fear that they might lose even the salary they receive. Although most of them do not agree with the conduct of this government. The others who took part in the vote and voted for the DP are citizens who have put their money into usury firms. They vegetate without any purpose, without any idea, without any prospects and without work. They drink coffee and smoke while voicing deep laments about Berisha’s government. Nevertheless, they voted under the weight of the burden: “what if the usury money disappears?” Meanwhile, a small number of those who voted in favor are the sort of cowards who think, “they’re monitoring us with devices to see whom we voted for.” Those who did not vote, too, did not dare to choose their freedom. Without a doubt, they are opposed to Berisha’s government, and found a way to protest by not voting. The strongest reason is that they do not want to be insulted again by vote-rigging. Nevertheless, whether because of the vote-manipulating state or because of the opposition’s incapacity, these Albanian citizens were unable to choose freedom. But even those who voted against Berisha’s government did not dare to choose freedom. This was because their numbers were insufficient to bring about change. In a particular situation, they found themselves isolated from the other majority, which was afraid every day to express words of dissatisfaction with the current government. Yet genuine civic courage cannot be realized when citizens are not well organized in political forces and non-governmental organizations, when the government uses the police and frustrates citizens through division. Albanians are taking lessons in democracy by experimenting on themselves. When the civic foundation is in place, all the examples will be chosen. FRROK ÇUPI

“I don’t deal with people who have 13 bodyguards at once” page 5

After all Albanian politicians turned us down, we are now sending our request for a telephone to Allias, to the offices of the colorful newspaper “Dita Informacion”. Our colleagues should understand and help us, because we have reached the point that the owner, Shpëtim Nazarko, would sum up in the headline “Cry, little brother, cry.” This request, naturally painful for the Laçkos, is also spurred on by the appeal of the great writer Dritëro Agolli. Just yesterday, the Director told us: “Boys, forget Servet’s telephone, but get the telephone over there at ‘Dita’, because they’re driving me crazy with the drinking and at night.” If our colleagues at Dita promise us that they will no longer bother the great Dritëro, we will withdraw our request to move it farther to the right. For now, we are reserving our request for a telephone from the director of Albania, Ylli Rakipi, who, as he himself has said, is powerless to dismiss the director of ATSH, Ilir Zhill[a?], who has 32 telephones.

MUNICIPALITIES DP 37 K.Pav 1 PS 4 COMMUNES DP 193 PDK 1 PBDNJ 6 PS 12 Number of council members DP 488 PR 37 PS 324 PBDNJ 30 POLI 38 PBK 25 SBMH Source: Central Election Commission