OF ALBANIA
Tomorrow is 6 November, and the Albanian people will go to the ballot boxes to answer the question posed by President Berisha as to whether you agree or disagree with his draft constitution.
his draft constitution. Despite the PS’s firm and well-substantiated denunciation and its appeal for consensus and understanding, despite the denunciation by 17 political parties, parliamentary and non-parliamentary, and many other associations, President Berisha and the DP took upon themselves the burden of responsibility for bringing the illegal and unconstitutional referendum to completion. Democracy and political pluralism, which the people have gained as great victories, are at risk of being lost, closing Albania’s gates to progress and European civilization. Therefore, with a NO vote, let us show that we are capable and worthy of opening the way to democracy, progress and Albania’s future. Your NO vote in the referendum is not a vote against the constitution, but a vote against a project that paves the way for illegality, mass persecution, the disappearance of pluralism, and totalitarian hell.
1. The Socialist Party of Albania has been, and remains, in favor of a deeply democratic constitution, one that will be a legal guarantee for democratic institutions, guarantee the implementation and protection of freedoms and human rights, become a strong legal foundation for establishing the rule of law, and constitute an insurmountable barrier to any attempt to establish a new dictatorship.
The draft constitution placed before you for a vote has been brought forward in order to pave the way for actual dictatorship. The path followed to bring the draft constitution to a referendum is illegal and unconstitutional, because a party-political order violated parliament’s exclusive right to adopt the constitution, and because the constitutional law—which explicitly provides for two weeks—was openly violated, denying voters the necessary time for discussion and for expressing their views on the constitution from all sides. What it provides for through the solution of capturing and the rules of the new constitution, yet at with a constitution, demand your vote without hesitation, with an unprecedented democracy and development and spe... [the bottom part of the lines is unclear]
Democracy and the nation. History shows that demagoguery, fanfare and noise organized, paid and armed, by the secret police, legal violations, and psychological and police terror against people, especially the opposition, have been the path by which dictatorships and dictators have come to power.
The President of the Republic and the leadership of the DP turned the referendum campaign into a campaign of pressure and major propaganda, demagogic, psychological and police repression, in order to defend power at any cost; they turned the referendum campaign into a vote of confidence to protect Berisha’s regime, to protect alarming corruption and corrupt power.
Berisha’s staged, spectacular and extremely costly parade is at once an indication of his great thirst for unlimited power and of fear and alarm in the face of mass unemployment, the great hardships of life and people’s widespread disappointment. It is a clear and unfortunate expression of chieftain-like, monist and totalitarian ideas. It expresses a culture of rule instead of coexistence, monologue and arrogant recruitment instead of dialogue, police coercion instead of consensus, division instead of reconciliation, deception instead of free and democratic coexistence, and corruption instead of law. Berisha’s noisy campaign, backed by imported and paid stooges, sought to pressure the electorate, create the impression of popular support, and create the illusion that the majority of the people were with Berisha’s regime. Berisha’s campaign was designed and carried out using populist street methods, organizing groups of paid illusionists, applying enormous pressure on people, making frenzied attempts to corrupt people, engaging in major diversion that causes division, and resorting to monstrous manipulation and deception. This was carried out using totalitarian methods: closing schools and forcibly commandeering pupils, teachers and state administration employees for the streets. In this campaign, in an unbelievable and unconstitutional manner, the DP was joined by the state administrative apparatus, the military, campaign.
2. The Socialist Party of Albania firmly denounces this illegal and unconstitutional theatrical campaign by the President and its sinister aims. It denounces the identification of the DP with the nation, with Albania and with democracy; it denounces the development of cults and idols of a same. the dangerous attempts to equate Berisha with the leader of the Albanians. The Socialist Party firmly denounces the deception and manipulation being inflicted on public opinion and the extraordinary effort carried out through television, which displays a disgusting servility toward Berisha’s regime and the DP.
3. The Socialist Party has been, and remains, committed to defending the law, democracy and its institutions. It will not allow a new dictatorship to be established in Albania. The draft constitution before you has been brought forward illegally and unconstitutionally. It has serious defects in its content, because it creates major imbalances of power and gives the president superpowers; it does not guarantee the independence of the judiciary or the protection of human freedoms and rights, etc.
For precisely these reasons, the Socialist Party of Albania calls on you workers who want work and are unemployed; peasants who cannot work their land and can barely make ends meet; intellectuals who can barely support your families and children; veterans of war and labor whose wounds from war and work still pain you, and more work still pain you, despite the pension you receive; merchants and owners who are drowning under the state’s heavy taxes; you young people who have no prospects ahead of you; and you women of Albania, whose exhaustion and distress have increased, to say «No» to the Berisha-style draft constitution.
4. Your «No» vote is the greatest help you can and must give to democracy, both today and in Albania’s future. Your «No» vote means protecting Albania from the danger of dictatorship and dictators, from the ghosts of the past.
Your «No» vote is a «No» to the constitutional coup and unconstitutional referendum, to corruption and the medieval rule of chieftains; «No» to the return of monism and dictatorship; «No» to corruption and the rule of economic smuggling; «No» to the mafia-style plundering of national wealth and the noose around merchants and new owners; «No» to political persecution and the imprisonment of journalists; «No» to the dark deception of political prisoners; «No» to the political imprisonment of PS Chairman Fatos Nano; «No» to the distortion of the history of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War; «No» to denying the blood, sweat and countless sacrifices of the Albanian people.
5. Members and supporters of the Socialist Party.
Intellectuals, workers, peasants, young men and women.
Military personnel, mothers and fathers, old and new owners.
Honest citizens of Albania.
6 November is the day for Albanians to show that they know how to govern themselves, that they know not to be lied to and deceived any longer. Tomorrow is the day to demonstrate our great strength against manipulation and stale demagoguery.
Therefore, no doubts, no hesitation. Let us say No to Berisha’s constitution; let us put a stop once and for all to his thirst for power and rule. Vote no and say no; prevent those who, through their governance, will create a society of violence and terror instead of free citizens, and create generations of modern slaves. The NO vote is the foundation on which true democracy will rest. Let us cast it with conviction and defend it with joy and courage, for we are defending the people’s values against thieves and falsifiers. We must make Albania’s constitution together, because our Albania belongs to everyone. A great responsibility for future democracy rests on you today, and on your vote. The No vote. ■
Socialist Party of Albania
Tirana, 4. 11. 1994 [unclear]