PD Chairman Tritan Shehu announces a landslide victory for the PD in the second round of local government elections Results table for the runoff Turnout 68.5% Municipalities 96 PD 73 PS 2 PBDNJ 3 PBSD 2 PR 6 PBK 4 Independent 5 PDK 1 76% 2.08 3.12 2.08 6.25% 4.15% 5.2% 1.04% 64% Municipalities 22 21 0 1 95.5% 4.5% is the development of Albania in these years, its achievements in this period, this change in people’s mentality, this embrace of democracy, which mean that in Albania there are no longer people who are thought to be changeable, who do not embrace democratic principles, the concepts of the market economy, private property. There should be no areas thought to be beyond the reach of democracy. Democracy goes everywhere, includes everyone, because in democracy there are no latecomers, everyone is welcome in democracy PAGE 3

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Zhulali in Austria PAGE 2

After the second round of local government elections Observers from the Council of Europe, who followed the second round of local government elections, considered it satisfactory overall. They expressed this yesterday in a statement regarding their observations at many polling stations across a varied geography where the runoff voting took place. However, the Council of Europe noted irregularities whose nature was not specified in the report they drew up concerning this vote count. Notably, in yesterday's communiqué they emphasized violations by the opposition, while a good part of what they considered violations is thought to have been the result of individual errors or traditions. The elections were sufficiently free and fair, says yesterday's communiqué of the Council of Europe, to be accepted as a credible expression of the electorate’s choice. They are a step in the right direction, the communiqué stresses. Already last week the head of the Council of Europe delegation, Rufi, had spoken in superlatives about the good level of the 20 October elections, considering them completely free. S.N.

President Berisha's message sent to writer Ismail Kadare The President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, sent a message to writer Ismail Kadare on the occasion of his membership in the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France, in which it says: Your membership today in the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France is a special event not only for you, but for all Albanian literature, of which you are the most prominent representative. Your membership in the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France represents a colossal and rare peak of Albanian thought. Those enlightened men, who over centuries and millennia shaped Albanian civilization, are eternally part of Western civilization and from the very dawn represented Albanians everywhere, who have felt proud of you. By honoring you, the temple of French thought has honored the body of letters and culture of the Albanian nation, and therefore Albanians today are grateful to France, the great country of laws and freedom, the inspiring country of all great human and peoples’ struggles and efforts for freedom and dignity in these last centuries. In this French political and social thought that inspired our Rilindas, it was with its greatness all their titanic efforts to turn Albania into a country worthy of the civilized nations of Europe and to become part of the race of President Mitterrand, this distinguished and great friend of the Albanian nation, who with strong Albanian support of the Rilindja, their national wisdom, their efforts for freedom, democracy and integration into Europe. France is and will be the cradle of light and the ancient civilization of the world, and for this, Albanians are and will be grateful to France and the French nation. Your membership in the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France is a dignified achievement of the thought of the Albanian nation and an inspiration for its contribution and for the foundation and development of European civilization.

Shehu congratulates Rugova on the title Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Paris The Chairman of the Democratic Party, Tritan Shehu, yesterday congratulated President Rugova for awarding yesterday a special [unclear]. Shehu valued the high academic title awarded to President Rugova as the most outstanding expression of the appreciation that European scientific and intellectual circles show toward the firm and wise policy that President Rugova has pursued in defense of the national and peaceful rights of the Albanian people of Kosovo. The title, he wrote to Rugova, is a great recognition and contribution for the Albanians and for your leadership and directly serves peace and stability in the Balkan region. Chairman Shehu, while warmly congratulating him on this achievement with its full set of national and international values, assures Rugova and the Albanian peaceful movement of the full support of the Democratic Party.

President of the French Senate René Monory greets Arbëri “Mr. Chairman, allow me to congratulate you on the successes achieved so far by your Party during the local elections held in your country. These elections are a good indicator of an effort to build a state closer to democracy and society moving rapidly toward freedom. I take this opportunity, through you, to express my thanks to the Albanian citizens who, with the vigilant interest with which they have followed the development of cooperation between my country and your country, understand the scope of relations between our two parliaments. I hereby send you my greetings; please accept the expression of my best sentiments.”

Ismail Kadare associate member of the French Academy the eternal history. In a written message, Albanian President Sali Berisha thanked France for this noble testimony of Albania’s recognition by its cultural heirs. Ismail Kadare, 60, was elected in May 1996, thus succeeding the English philosopher of Austrian origin, Karl Popper. The author of the concert has dealt with the Balkans, where brutality reigns, sorrow, coarseness and the Balkans, for whom Europe remains a constant point of reference, a matter to keep in mind. Regarding Albanians, the first image that comes to mind is the shocking image of thousands of people clinging to the railings of a ship, said Kadare, who admitted that (in his words) the evil people with it, a bitter pivotal fate, as it generally has been. The hulls of these ships bore everywhere the name of Europe, forty years plus accusations from it. This way of acting was the only means that served to save their dream (called) Europe. After the dramatic break with the Tirana regime, Ismail Kadare would remain public in France in 1990. Kadare, an Albanian since then, has lived in France ever since, but the times of Albania, his country, a floating novel, the duration of post-communism in Albania. Among the 12 foreign members of this academy are Leopold Sedar Senghor, writer Carlos Fuentes, Konrad Lorenz, Pinchus Karl, Anglais, Vasilij Havell and Javier Perez De Cuellar. The Albanian writer Ismail Kadare [?] We remind you that, as has also been written in this message, Ismail, for 7-8 years, deeply with a wish for residence and Great Albania and a successor of situations, faucets and epic, of the condition that bowed in the masculine middle. In the non-inclusion of Albanians and the successors of his painting, the repeated magic of the tear of the