The consensus on the Electoral Code is definitively shattered The ruling party approves the Code. Berisha walks out of Parliament and meets the American Ambassador: This is the funeral Code The consensus on the Electoral Code is definitively shattered Berisha lights the fuse: I’ll plant the dynamite on you The ruling party approves the Code. Berisha walks out of Parliament and meets the American Ambassador: This is the funeral Code page 5

Speaking at the Forum on Albania at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, the am-

In the USA, dialogue campaign. the OSCE ambassador in Tirana, Gert Ahrens, once again warned that “there will be difficult elections in Albania.” In fact, based also on the terms with which Mr. Ahrens described the political and general situation in Albania, the flaws that have left Albania behind the other former communist countries of Europe once again come to light. First and foremost, present-day Albania pays the price for its lack of political culture, which has turned it into a protectorate of international institutions. Indeed, recent developments are showing that the monitoring of political processes in Albania by these institutions is also proving insufficient. The most flagrant case in this respect is the failure of efforts to reach consensus on the Electoral Code and the establishment of the Central Election Commission. Speaking specifically about the elections, Mr. Ahrens, describing them as a “key point” in democratization and institution-building, emphasized the primary role of domestic actors, without which any international assistance or modern legislation is insufficient. Judging from statements made several days ago, Berisha too seems to think along the same lines as Ahrens, by foregrounding the role of domestic actors. But Berisha himself, with his positions dominated by a spirit of confrontation, is perhaps the main reason why the presence and intervention of the OSCE and foreign institutions in Albanian political life is unavoidable. However, his opponents are not far behind in this regard, as was evident in their unwillingness to yield to the opposition’s demands concerning the preparation of the electoral process. Indeed, a lack of political culture is an obstacle to institution-building, but it should not be forgotten that political culture itself is cultivated through the functioning of these institutions. Judging from the opposing positions of the government and the opposition regarding the Electoral Code under which the next elections will be held, it seems that the precedent of the 1996 and 1997 elections will be repeated, when the losing side did not recognize the institutions resulting from those elections. It is clear that in this way, even if they are not challenged by foreign organizations, their functioning cannot even be considered, leaving political life continually at square one. If the political class in power claims the right to govern the country through institutions that are not recognized by the opposition, then in practice we would return to a softened version of one-party rule. And after what happened in Parliament yesterday, you would have to be somewhat naïve to be optimistic about a political future different from the one we have left behind over these ten years.

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Head of the OSCE in Washington pages 6–7 Ahrens reports on Albania in the USA Here is what is wrong with our politics

Bari, head of the Anti-Mafia speaks page 11 Albanian “clans” are drug kings “They control all the trafficking”