The Prosecutor’s Office completes its investigation. Money sought in Austrian banks ON PAGE 5

The Greek state orders police to shoot at Albanians ON PAGE 5

Greek special forces and armored vehicles at the border ON PAGE 5

Berisha is given the mandate to lead the party until the National Assembly. Democratic MPs will be absent from the opening of the parliament of the Kalashnikovs Through extensive discussions, the National Council of the Democratic Party conducted a broad analysis of the pre-election, election and post-election situation, as well as the causes of the defeat in these elections, emphasizing the need for a complete and rapid renewal of the DP so that it can be a strong, constructive and loyal opposition defending the values of democracy. The National Council assessed that: - The elections of 29 June were held under the weight of violence and terror perpetrated by Socialist gangs against people from the Democratic Party and the electorate in general. - During the 29 June election campaign, the DP conducted its electoral contest on entirely unequal terms compared with the left, primarily the Socialist Party, being unable to make inroads in many southern cities, while its candidates experienced the ceding of ground to the communists; - The elections of 29 June, as the international community has also acknowledged, were neither free nor fair; consequently, they were merely a political choice intended to overcome the current crisis and move toward a new phase of long-term elections; The National Council considers the armed rebellion to be the main cause that led the DP to this defeat. It was emphasized that the new democratic state and the Democratic Party were not prepared to confront a communist rebellion, the only one in all the former communist countries; - Another serious cause of this defeat was the government’s excessive tolerance toward the pyramid schemes and its failure to inform citizens transparently and in a timely manner of the danger they faced from investing in these schemes; - The government cannot convince the people that it had not taken money from the pyramid schemes and had not been implicated in them; - The Socialist Party chairman’s sensational promise to return the money to all those who lost it in the pyramid schemes; These factors were compounded by the general struggle against corruption; - The mistaken selection of some people for leadership positions and the lack of oversight by the party’s senior leadership bodies over the implementation of the DP’s program and the functioning of the state administration. To carry out a comprehensive and rapid restructuring, the National Council decided: - to convene the National Assembly in early October of this year; - to set up a 27-member working group to prepare for the Assembly, comprising members of the DP leadership, members of the National Council and DP activists; - to give the mandate to lead the DP until the Assembly to the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha. - not to attend the opening session of the People’s Assembly, as a sign of protest against the Albanian people’s vote being violated by Socialist gangs. The National Council of the DP analyzes the causes of the election defeat. The National Assembly will be held in early October

The President’s spokesperson responds to speculation in the left-wing press “The purpose of these meetings was not to exclude Mr. Fatos Nano from the post of Prime Minister, because the moral code of democratic laws disqualifies him from that post, but to find a prime minister with no past criminal convictions and no future amnesty.” The President of the Republic has been fully committed to swiftly carrying out the constitutional procedures for convening Parliament, says a response by the President’s spokesperson to recent speculation in the left-wing press. Delays in this regard have resulted from the stance of Socialist representatives on the Central Election Commission, who not only were responsible for falsifying official documents but also tried in every way to prevent the announcement of the final election results. The President of the Republic expressed his position that Parliament should convene at the beginning of this week in all the meetings he held with representatives of the political parties, and this position received their support. At the same time, the President of the Republic has been and remains confident that by the time of the Rome meeting Albania will have its prime minister and will be represented by him at that meeting. The President of the Republic began consultations with the political forces on appointing the new prime minister with the aim of expediting the government’s constitutional procedures. Although prior consultations are not provided for by the constitutional provisions, they are part of the purpose, ethics and constitutional practice not only in Albania but in all the world’s democracies. The first party invited to these consultations was the Socialist Party. convictions and no future amnesty. On this occasion, the President of the Republic thanks all the political forces that shared his view that a prime minister from the majority, broadly acceptable, should be appointed. However, since some of the party’s leading figures, who enjoy the support of domestic and international opinion, are unable to take charge of the executive, and given that the National Council of the Democratic Party decided that President Berisha should lead the opposition, the President of the Republic decided to discontinue consultations on forming the new government.

The Constitutional Court restores voting in electoral district number 4; Fatmir Mehdiu of the PR loses his seat To determine the winner in district no. 4, the Constitutional Court deemed it necessary to hold a third round of elections at 14 polling stations in this district in Dukagjin. The PD candidate, Spahia, is expected to have a strong chance of winning there. ON PAGE 2 The Constitutional Court restores voting in electoral district number 4; Fatmir Mehdiu of the Republican Party loses his seat Ali Spahia heads for the People’s Assembly To determine the winner in district no. 4, the Constitutional Court deemed it necessary to hold a third round of elections at 14 polling stations in this district in Dukagjin. The PD candidate, Spahia, is expected to have a strong chance of winning there. ON PAGE 2

Democrats will not be present for the blessing of the government emerging from a parliamentary chamber that reeks of gunpowder President Berisha signs the decree President Berisha signed yesterday the decree calling the first session of the new legislature of the People’s Assembly, which will convene tomorrow at 17:00. By convening the new Parliament, President Berisha is paving the way for the institutionalization of the new socialist-majority government, which won the elections of 29 June through violence and terror. Tomorrow, deputies of the Democratic Party, the country’s second-largest political force, will be absent from the presentation of the left-wing deputies, some of whose leaders entered parliament not with votes, but with Kalashnikovs. On Sunday, the National Council decided that PD deputies would thus express their protest against the violence inflicted on the elections and the terrorist methods used to secure the Socialist Party’s victory in the 29 June vote. The National Council decided that Democratic deputies would not take part in the proceedings of the People’s Assembly until further notice, even though the Democratic Party recognizes the elections as acceptable given the conditions Albania is going through. In a fundamental contrast with the Socialists, who one year earlier did not recognize the legitimate elections of 26 May, the Democrats have declared their determination to recognize the elections, demonstrating the responsibility of a constructive and loyal opposition that does not regard a boycott as its political course. Berisha’s decree convening the new parliament comes immediately after the Central Election Commission announced the final results and following his consultations with several parties across Albania’s political spectrum. At the President’s meetings with party leaders, agreement had been reached on the date of parliament’s first sitting, although he also expressed his views on the new government. The Socialist Party, which did not take part in these consultations, was insisting, without any grounds, that it would convene parliament itself if President Berisha did not do so. The Socialists’ ill-conceived ultimatum—since Berisha had never questioned the urgency of convening parliament—is yet another demonstration of the revanchism promised by the leaders of the victorious majority, which secured a large share of the seats in parliament at gunpoint. Their threat to convene illegally would in fact have been the culmination of the violence of the rebellion that the Socialists organized and led to win their elections, because everything would have been done not with votes but with weapons. Berisha did not give them this opportunity; as on 9 March, he thought not of the terrorists and the directors and instigators of civil war, but of the fate of Albania and the Albanians. He did not allow the majority to violate all the constitutional laws of the Albanian state and convene itself, thereby proving that it was a group of political gangsters, entirely like their armed gangs in the south and elsewhere. He thought further ahead, just as the PD said that, in the name of higher interests, it recognized the results of the most irregular and violent elections in the world. The parliament, reeking of gunpowder because of the high concentration of Kalashnikovs among the deputies in its seats, will begin tomorrow without the Democrats, who have chosen this form of protest against the violence and terror inflicted on their electorate to bring the Communists back to power. Democratic Party deputies are expected to be absent from the sessions at which the Kalashnikov parliament will give its blessing to the socialist government and the other institutions of power. They will return to vote in parliament on the other institutions of general power and on constructive measures, and will denounce every attempt by the Socialist Party government to violate and trample democracy in Albania. They will return there in the name of higher interests, despite the fact that the composition of the new parliament is a grave insult to Albanian democracy. Tomorrow, dozens of deputies will take their seats in the Kalashnikov parliament—people who not only obtained votes at gunpoint, but also people who themselves carried the weapons that killed people and stained Albania’s roads with blood during the Communist rebellion. Arben Imami and others will be in parliament; they dressed in military uniforms to march toward the capital at the head of the armed rebels, as will several university [graduates?] who have secured a parliamentary mandate that has not been validated, because they do not meet the criteria for being in the PS. The Democrats will return to the Kalashnikov parliament to reduce the chances of the Communists seizing the government by force and to shorten the life of an illegitimate situation—an extraordinary event in Albanian history. A. PATOZI