A well-deserved, but alarming, victory for the SP. The OSCE, ODIHR and Council of Europe recognize the election results The Socialists won thanks to Prime Minister Meta and because of Berisha’s failings page 3

By Edi Lesi With the conclusion yesterday of the first round of local elections, Albania cleared the highest hurdle in its race toward Euro-Atlantic structures and membership in the community of democratic countries. Our country’s prestige on the international stage increased [?]

With the conclusion yesterday of the first round of local elections, Albania cleared the highest hurdle in its race toward Euro-Atlantic structures and membership in the community of democratic countries. … the community of democratic countries. Our country’s prestige must have been crowned with a second golden halo, after its noble stance during the Kosovo crisis. A year ago, by sheltering nearly one million Kosovars, in addition to improving the perception of Albanians—who until then had been deliberately labeled only as destabilizers and troublemakers—our country gained nothing else extra. With yesterday’s test, beyond the kind words, something may also end up in the bag. People with major international influence, such as Olbrajt, her deputy Pikering, representatives of the European Union, and others, have said dozens of times that a normal electoral process on 1 October would be a major step toward Albania’s integration. Yesterday, these same representatives said that we had succeeded in voting freely, honestly and in accordance with democratic standards. This means there is one fewer gate to pass through to enter the great European family. In fact, Sunday’s elections really seemed to be the most successful in these 10 years of democracy: calm, no verbal or physical coercion of citizens’ personal choices, and no destruction of ballots eclipsed the few technical shortcomings. The irregularities in the voter lists identified by the opposition are not thought to be so extensive or intolerable as to undermine the conviction that the elections were free and fair. A conviction that Albanian voters need so much. It would truly be disastrous if, at the dawn of the new millennium, we were still not free of the anxiety of election Sunday—an anxiety that for several years has haunted citizens, as votes sometimes ended up in the river, sometimes were declared invalid, or, worse, went to the candidate they did not prefer. With the first step Albania took on Sunday, it is not far-fetched to say that future Albanian elections will come even closer to international democratic standards. This could give Albania a leading role in integration among several neighboring countries that still suffer from a lack of respect for human rights and the freedom to vote. This is happening thanks to the merits of Albanians themselves, who are tired of Berisha’s rallies, bulldozers and dynamite, but also thanks to the prime minister’s determination: he kept his public promise that “he will punish anyone who touches the institutions of the state.”

53 journalists in the districts and 21 in Tirana were at the television station’s disposal The only station in Albania that broadcast the progress and results of the local elections minute by minute page 2

are manipulated

We apologize, dear readers, because last night at 21:00 a voltage surge from the Tirana Electric Utility destroyed the newspaper’s entire computer system and burned out the transmission equipment of Koha radio and television, forcing us to publish 24 pages today. We apologize once again, but that was all we could do to get the newspaper on sale today.