Incidents range from burglaries at anelectoral office, damage of posters and billboards to more serious crimes like an explosion, arson and physical assaults.
TIRANA, June 6 – Albanian authorities and the media are reporting a growing number of incidents that are potentially related to the campaign for the Albania’s June 23 parliamentary elections, which is now in full swing. These ranged from burglaries at anelectoral office, damage of posters and billboards to more serious crimes like an explosion, arson and physical assaults.
The opposition Socialist Party says its electoral office in downtown Tirana, in the area known as Ish-Ekspozita, has been broken into, and a TV set and computer were stolen over the weekend. In the northeastern town of Kukes, street ads featuring Socialist Party candidate MP Vexhi Mucmata were damaged over the weekend.
Last Friday, Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s car was reportedly hit with a brick thrown by man in the town of Burrel, where Berisha held a rally. The 53-year-old was held for questioning and then released. Reports indicated the man was drunk at the time of the incident. There were more serious incidents elsewhere, but there is no immediate cothe campaign. The most serious event took place in the southern coastal city of Vlora where a small amount of explosive was set off in the apartment block where Ardian Kollozi lives. He is head of the ruling Democratic Party in Vlora and candidate MP for the DP in this region. The ruling Democrats described the explosion last weekend which caused only material damage as politically motivated while nfirmation that they were related directly to the opposition Socialists distanced themselves from the act.
Just before the official start of the electoral campaign on May 24, a local Democratic Party official in Kukes was seriously wounded in an armed attack while the Socialist Party head in Preza, a village in the outskirts of Tirana, had his house and business set on fire by arsonists.
A Socialist Party mayor in the town of Gramsh has also denounced physical violence by a Defence Ministry official after debates over party flags in the town’s centre.
In another incident a policeman was injured with a knife while trying to separate two men quarreling before the holding of an electoral rally in the town of Cerrik central Albania. Later it was said the person who injured the policeman was drunk.
