Sunday vote

TIRANA, Feb. 18 – Albanians voted in local elections Sunday with thousands of observers on hand to monitor them. The polls were seen as a crucial measure of progress toward democracy. They were considered an important step that Albania needs to make for its future integration efforts into the European Union and NATO. About 2.9 million registered voters in the country of 4.2 million people will elect officials to local offices in 384 urban and rural communities. There were 1,074 candidates of Democratic Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s 10-party governing coalition and Tirana Mayor Edi Rama’s five-party opposition grouping.
Some 3,000 local observers from eight Albanian non-governmental organizations and about 400 international ones from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe and the European Parliament monitored the elections, which started at 0600 GMT and last until 1700 GMT. President Alfred Moisiu appealed to voters to go to the polls and warned that any person violating the law would be brought to justice. “These elections are an ideal opportunity to make the big step toward achieving electoral democratic standards. If we do that, our chances of integration into NATO and of a closer cooperation with the EU are greater,” said Moisiu. “I invite everyone to vote.”
Everything went generally correctly and calm during the voting process. There were a few incidents like that of Kombinat near the capital Tirana. But the calm situation was almost spoiled during the counting process Sunday and the next days. There were incidents in southwestern Himara, in Gjirokastra in the south, in Fier, in Bushat in the north and especially that of Ndroq near Tirana.