Elections in Shijak go further back to international standards

SHIJAK, March 11 – Osman Metalla of the governing Democratic Party won 91 percent of the votes in the Sunday general elections in Shijak. His opponent, Igli Cela of the opposition Socialists, had only nine percent, but in mid-day he withdrew from the race, allegedly to protect his commissioners who were threatened in the zone. The voting culminated when a Democratic Party commissioner was shot and wounded with a pistol by a Socialist supporter. Shijak was ‘populated’ Sunday by scores of parliamentarians by both sides who all accused each other of manipulating the vote in different ways. At the same time the Central Election Commission, or KQZ, penalized all those Socialist vote commissioners who abandoned their job that day. Voting in most of the 38 polling stations had not started five hours after the timing due to political confrontation on the technical details between the two groupings. The international community issued a joint statement days later to criticize both sides for the Shijak voting and also to remind them they should immediately start work for the electoral reforms needed.