Foreign Minister in international campaign for local elections

TIRANA, Dec. 13 – Foreign Minister Besnik Mustafaj held this week a series of meetings and sent letters to international factor on the Jan. 20 local elections that have been an issue of quarrel between the country’s governing majority of the Democratic Party and the opposition Socialist-led coalition. On Monday Mustafaj sent a letter to international institutions explaining how the process was continuing and confirmed the determination of his government to guarantee a free and fair process. “Realizing the electoral process in conformity with international standards is more important to the Albanian government than the election results,” he wrote. He also said that Albanian authorities welcomed the monitoring and sending observers from international institutions. On Wednesday Mustafaj met with the ODIHR senior official Jorgen Grunnet who will likely head the observation mission for the elections. He repeated his government’s determination for a free and fair process. Concerning the opposition’s boycott Mustafaj said that was not part of the democratic culture. He reminded the international official that during the previous local elections under the Socialist governing the infrastructure has also had a lot of shortcomings but Democrats never thought of boycotting them. The ODIHR is to send 30 long-time and 400 short-term observers for the elections.