Good signs after local polls

TIRANA, Aug. 2 – May 8 local or municipal elections have practically not been over yet. Three months after them election authorities have yet to publish the final results, waiting this time only results from some partial voting held in nine communes. One commune is yet to hold the voting and that does not make a problem.
But it seems that the normal holding of the voting, the best and democratic part of that contested process, is giving some good results, if they are true.
The local media published an email message that opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama had sent to his members being elected in different areas and advising them no to employ militants at the posts of the local administration.
The administration should be competent and pleasant to the community due to its professionalism and commitment, he wrote. The city hall does not belong to the party but to the city, he added.
He also advised them to closely and carefully discuss on the results of the elections in preparation for the next ones.
Local elections were held across Albania in May and the campaign violence included explosions, stabbings, beatings and threats.
Opposition supporters held rallies for days outside the electoral commission’s headquarters in May to protest a decision to amend the results by including ballots originally uncounted for having been cast into the wrong ballot boxes.
Political tension in Albania is high. Rama’s party claims the governing Democrats rigged national elections in 2009, and four opposition supporters died in clashes with police during a large demonstration in Tirana in January. Berisha denies any wrongdoing and has rejected opposition calls for his resignation.