The socialist leader will hold a rally in the northern city, defying rumors that the people of Shkodër will not even let him enter Baçallëk. Large numbers of police officers and plainclothes personnel will accompany the chief socialist’s arrival in a city that is problematic for the socialists . Nano: The people of Shkodër, heads bowed before me! Page 3

. By FERDINAND XHAFERRI. MP OF THE DP. The electoral campaign for the local elections has almost entirely completed the phase of competition within the political entities. We are now preparing to enter its most crucial stage, involving competition among the candidates of the political entities, as well as their respective programs, if there are any. Meanwhile, the incidents that have emerged within the two main parties during the candidate-selection process compel us to think that there are overt tendencies to create an infrastructure for tense elections. They also clearly show that violence has no political coloring—or, more precisely, that political coloring is used as a label to mask the economic interests of groups. In any case, these incidents serve as a warning that all sides, especially the government, must be both committed and responsible, so that the situation remains firmly within the bounds of normality. This is because, at this moment, who wins is not of primary importance for the country’s future. What matters is that we have free and fair elections. In other words, that Albanians convey and reinforce the messages. First, that the stance and good reputation we earned during the crisis in Kosovo were not a one-off occurrence. Second, that we have decided to consign the manipulation of elections and the tensions that have accompanied them in recent years to the archives of the past. Third, that we have learned that free and fair elections are the necessary condition that must be met in order to lay firm foundations in the marathon of efforts to build the rule of law. (Continued on page 4)

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. Page 19