According to the announcement issued by the offices of the DP, it is learned that, at the invitation of the EDU secretariat, a delegation of the leadership of the DP of Albania set off yesterday at midday. It was made up of Messrs. Ylli Vejsiu, organizational secretary, and Fatos Beja, secretary of the parliamentary group of the DP of Albania, to take part in an EDU (European Democratic Union) meeting to be held in Seville, Spain. The DP of Albania has been a full member of the EDU since March 1966.

Candidates for mayor in Elbasan, Cërrik, Belsh and Gramsh are presented SP—candidate crisis The Socialist Party is experiencing the most widespread crisis in putting forward its representatives as candidates for local government. Out of around four thousand candidacies, it is forced to choose among people with inferior educational backgrounds and weak public standing or reputations, even locally. Hundreds of villages, communes and municipalities are expressing their rejection of the Socialists today, pushing this party entirely toward its real wing: the old former communist nomenklatura and the former State Security service. The Socialists’ concern about the lethargy spreading through all the organizational segments of this party is linked to many factors that are seriously worsening the PS’s political situation. In addition to the lack of alternatives and the major split that has occurred within the party, the moral elimination of people by the Socialists who lead from Tirana weighs most heavily these days, when they have to fill the candidate lists for local government. According to several reliable sources, in hundreds of communes and many municipalities the Socialists have been forced to put forward people with no credibility whatsoever, not even minimal, as candidates for local government. “These elections are more important,” Mr. Meksi emphasized, “because some absurd problems were created by the communist boycott on May 26. Not because the May 26 campaign was less important, but because it had its own character, as demonstrated by the fine result of the DP’s well-deserved victory. This campaign, with the same finesse, the same commitment, and the involvement of everyone who calls themselves a democrat, will be brought to a great and well-deserved victory, because this way we will close once and for all the routes and byways through which communism can penetrate into power.” PAGE 3 [?] characterize the PS’s political situation in many ways. exclusion that has taken place in this party, the moral elimination inflicted on people by the socialists who direct it no credibility whatsoever, not even minimal credibility, as candidates for local government. These lists include people with limited education as well as people at a wretched intellectual level. There is almost no instance in which the PS candidates have emerged through a reasonable selection process, since even single candidates who qualified without an opponent facing them have been hard to find. Their level of local representation is far lower than it was four years ago. For some time now, it has been a rare event for anyone with a reputation to join this party, even within small circles of people, while people’s hostility toward the party has reached a point of freezing. Its electoral dysfunction has also been acknowledged by the party’s own leaders. Thus, during this campaign period, the absence of an organizational secretary for even two or three days is an event for them. The PS’s public figures are so few that the absence of one of them creates a major void in its entire electoral process. Its own Secretary General, sensing his party’s political neutralization, has declared defeat in the local elections. The crisis in the PS’s candidates also reflects the party’s [?], which was consolidated most of all at the PS district conferences and its second congress. The PS’s sham reform brought about the party’s sterility, while promoting figures and leaders who had more to do with this political group’s past than with its future. The crisis in the candidates is another symptom of the general crisis in the political understanding of the current Albanian political landscape. The gap in question between what is said and what is happening in Albania could hardly fail to be reflected at moments such as local elections. Dakli—candidate for Mayor of Elbasan

At the United Nations General Assembly

Interview with Mr. Ali Spahia, given to Radio “Deutsche Welle” PAGE 3

C.E.C. sets limits on propaganda on RTSH The Permanent Central Election Commission has approved a consensus among representatives of all Albanian political forces regarding coverage on RTSH of the electoral campaign for local government elections. According to the C.E.C., representation of the political parties will be allocated in the following electoral minutes, pursuant to Articles 42–43. Of the four hours allocated each day for electoral propaganda on RTSH, as stipulated, 50% of this time will be available to the opposition parties. This time will be used to present their electoral programmes and broadcast the campaign spots with which the parties participating in the local elections will address voters. Five minutes in RTSH’s main news bulletin will be devoted to a segment on the progress of the political parties’ campaigns. Meanwhile, in the programme scheduled for 22:00 on RTSH, the segment “Political Parties in the Local Election Campaign” will be broadcast. The C.E.C. has also determined the order of the political parties. All [of the allocated time] is address voters. The programmes are based on the percentages of votes obtained in the 1992 local elections. Thus, in the 20:00 and 22:00 news, the PD will be first in the coverage of electoral activities, followed by the PS and then the PBD and Bashkimi Demokratik. The order will change and be reversed in the central news bulletin during the 48 hours before voting. RTSH, in cooperation with the C.E.C., will set time slots. The agreements must also be confirmed by the C.P.E.C. The technical equipment currently available to RTSH—its 10 cameras—will also be divided equally, according to the C.P.E.C.: 50% for the parties in the governing coalition and 50% for the opposition parties. The platform for coverage on RTSH of the campaign for local government elections, approved by the C.P.E.C., has been signed both by the representative of the governing coalition and by representatives of the opposition. The Deputy Chair of the C.P.E.C., Besnik Baro, who represents the PS, has signed the platform, which gives the government and opposition equal time for coverage of their electoral campaigns on RTSH. T. M.

The left-wing leaders of the political boycott publicly identify themselves Having traditionally met with the electorate’s silence and indifference to their threats of imprisonment, mass dismissals from work and seizure of property, the self-proclaimed “rjedhur” no longer seek votes, but only serve as record-keepers of the latest defeat they will suffer in the local government elections. Having traditionally met with the electorate’s silence and indifference to their threats of imprisonment, mass dismissals from work and seizure of property, the self-proclaimed “rjedhur” no longer seek votes, but only [serve as] the record-keepers of the latest defeat they will suffer in the local government elections.

Central Election Commission: The Central Election Commission has drafted a response concerning the protest that the Socialist Party sent to the Central Election Commission over the alleged violation of Articles 22 and 48 of the electoral law on local government elections. The response states: The commission, convened on September 25 in the presence of the majority of its members, found that: 1. The participation of the President of the Republic and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers in the electoral campaign, as well as that of other senior state officials and politicians, is entirely permitted and guaranteed by constitutional legal provisions. Article 48 of this law applies to employees covered by the civil service law. 2. The complaint concerning television is unfounded, since it refers to a period when the electoral campaign platform had not yet been established by this commission. This response was approved by the permanent Central Election Commission by majority vote (11 to 6).

the offer meets his counterparts in ENVE… loan to… the Soviets… element… the lists of…

Librazhd: PD candidate for mayor presented Burrel: PD launches its electoral campaign Candidates presented in Shijak, Sukth and Manzë PAGE 3