Documenti
Tirana Koha Jone in Albanian 20 June 97 p 1
Commentary by Gavrosh Levonja: "PD: 'The South, Unacceptable'"
Now when there are only 10 days to go before the 29 June elections and all hypothesis of postponing
them have been dropped, the Democratic Party [PD] has greatly intensified its campaign against the
south. The hub of this "antisouth" campaign contains, as usual, charges like insecurity, the
committees, the armed gangs, the attacks and pressure against the PD, the great shortcomings in the
election preparations, etc. The common thread in all these accusations is to prepare the public and
create the impression that elections in the south will not be regular. Irrespective of the many
anomalies which are not characteristic of the south alone, foreign observers and some Central Voting
Commission [KQZ] member, who has become acquainted with the situation in the south, have come to the
conclusion that preparations for elections in this part of the country, compared to the other zones,
do not fall short of what may be expected under the circumstances. A PD candidate in Gjirokaster
expressed his opinion in more or less positive tones about the possibility of calling almost normal
elections there. Regarding the committees, they have not been an obstacle to preparations for
elections. On the contrary they have contributed to helping the local authorities in several cases.
It has become a fact of life now for each and everyone that the Public Salvation Committees have
nothing in common with armed gangs, which commit violent acts and plunder the citizens. It is
likewise a fact that various incidents, threats, pressure, and other forms of harassment have not
been missing recently against politicians in the course of this election campaign. These acts
however have not been spearheaded only against the PD leaders and have not taken place only in the
south. For example, none of the incidents, with Berisha as the main protagonist, have taken place in
Vlore, Tepelene, or Gjirokaster. They have occurred in the part of Albania that Berisha claims loves
him. With the exception of Berisha, the other PD leaders have been conducting their election
campaigns in all the other "hot zones" of the south, with the exception of Vlore. Some careless PD
leader's statement is exposing their propaganda against the south. Following Pjeter Arbnori's
[speaker of parliament] guarantees and Berisha's promises at his recent meetings with foreigners
that "the PD will recognize the elections results, no matter what," some top PD leaders have begun
to issue declarations that they might not recognize the results of the election in the south, which
is foreseen to be a total failure for the PD. Such a thing may be inferred also by the hasty action
of some well-known PD leaders to remove their candidacies from the south and put them in other zones
. Aware of such a loss, their best justification would be to claim that the situation the south is
not normal. In this way, the PD would present the real ratio of forces in elections in the other
parts of the country. All these things are likely to make one think that in some cases the
"incidents" that take place in the south may have been connived in some PD offices to undermine the
29 June elections.