ALBANIAN PRESS REVIEW - Wednesday, 17 May 2006

POLITICAL AFFAIRS

Berisha says Albania will wait for NATO’s membership until 2008 (Panorama p. 4)

Prime Minister Sali Berisha said yesterday that Albania will get an invitation for membership into NATO in 2008, during a summit of the Alliance in Washington. This is the first time that Albanian high officials mention a possible membership date that is different from that of the Summit of Riga due in November 2007. Despite the US support, many European countries have been very sceptical about the reforms carried out by the Adriatic Charter member countries.

HCJ: DP and SP should find consensus on CEC (Gazeta Shqiptare, p. 6, Panorama p. 6)

The High Council of Justice (HCJ) called on the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the opposition Socialist Party (SP) yesterday to proceed quickly with nomination of the three vacant positions in the Central Election Commission (CEC). In a press statement, the deputy head of the HCJ Ilir Panda called on the largest parliamentary groups to nominate four candidates each who should be lawyers by profession. “Each of the parliamentary groups should select two out of from candidates of the other group,” Panda explained. The media also report about the SP Member of Parliament Petro Koçi saying that it is the SP’s exclusive right to nominate the HCJ representative in the CEC, unlike the DP that says that it is its right to do so. Koçi also called for the OSCE Presence’s intervention in solving this conflict.

Rama convenes allies for co-operation (Korrieri p. 3)

Head of the Socialist Party (SP) Edi Rama convened leaders of three left-wing parties yesterday and signed with them a joint co-operation agreement. SP sources said that together with Skender Gjinushi (Social Democratic Party - SDP), Neritan Ceka (Democratic Alliance – DA) and Paskal Milo (Social Democracy Party – SDY), Rama agreed to draft a unified platform of these forces the aim of which is to protect their interests during the work of the ad hoc Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform.

Veliaj and Kodheli candidates for Mayor of Tirana (Sot p. 3)

Sot reports that the current Mayor of Tirana Edi Rama has not confirmed yet whether or not he will run again for his post in the upcoming local government elections. It adds that Erjon Veliaj (the Mjaft! leader) and Mimi Kodheli (a SP member) are the two SP candidates that are recently rumoured to run for this post. The newspaper speculates that Veliaj has more chances than Kodheli to win in the next elections. Although not declaring any political affiliation openly, according to the daily, Veliaj is one of the people close to Mayor Rama.

ELECTORAL ISSUES

Moisiu calls on political parties to launch electoral reform (Gazeta Shqiptare p. 7, Korrieri p. 3, Shekulli p. 2)

President Alfred Moisiu called on political parties yesterday to start their concrete work for the electoral reform. In a letter addressed to the political parties who participated in the 7 December 2005 roundtable, President Moisiu stressed the need and the importance for the immediate launch of the electoral reform ahead of the upcoming local elections. “Apart from the positive achievements, the last parliamentary elections showed also deficiencies, which have been detailed in the final report of the OSCE/ODIHR mission,” Moisiu said in the letter. According to him, their correction and the duly preparations of a transparent, comprehensive and active election process is a need and a necessity for Albania’s efforts to achieve the standards required for the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration,” Moisiu said.

Berisha: I guarantee free elections (Standard p. 5, Korrieri p. 2, Tema p. 3)

Prime Minister Sali Berisha declared at a NATO event yesterday that the next local government elections will be fair and free. He also assured that the next election process will be in line with the international standards. Berisha said that the government sees the conduct of the elections in line with democratic standards as a necessity for the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration.

Zguri: Delays in electoral reform harms elections (Korrieri p. 2)

Interim chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Klement Zguri said yesterday that delays in the launching of the electoral reform could directly affect the normal conduct of the next local government elections. Zguri said that the political actors should get seriously committed to carrying out the electoral reform. “If this does not happen, the elections risk failing to be conducted in line with normal democratic standards,” Zguri said.

Right-wing party roundtable on elections fails (Gazeta Shqiptare p. 6, Standard p. 5, Shekulli p. 7)

Leaders of the right-wing parties failed to hold yesterday a roundtable on electoral reform, which was summoned by the head of the Republican Party (RP) parliamentary group Arjan Madhi. The reason for the failure was the absence of the representative of the Human Rights Union Party (HRUP).

PROPERTY RESTITUTION

Property Committee promises solutions to religious communities (Panorama p. 5, Standard p. 6, Korrieri p. 8, Korrieri p. 7)

Head of the State Committee of Restitution and Compensation of Properties (SCRCP) Sokrat Sinaj pledged yesterday to offer solutions to the property claims by various religious communities in Albania. Sinaj and the Committee members met with representatives of the Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic and Bektashi communities in the country to discuss issues of property restitution to these groups. The meeting was held under the auspice of the President of the Republic Alfred Moisiu and the Prime Minister Sali Berisha. They discussed ways of finding the technical modalities to solve the issue as the religious communities do not have the same documentation and property titles as the rest of owners in the registry offices. The properties of the religious communities are registered in a special book called the Register of Religious Properties.

MEDIA AFFAIRS

Panorama journalist declared not guilty for libel charges (Panorama p. 14, Standard p. 10)

The Tirana District Court found Florenc Bakillari, a journalist of the Panorama newspaper, not guilty for libel charges by a teacher of the Faculty of History and Philology, Agron Gani. The hearing was attended by many journalists and students of the Faculty, who had sued their teacher six months ago for bribe-taking and exerting psychological pressure on them. Bakillari was sued for having made false statements in a press article about Gani taking bribes. The Prosecutor of the case Robert Kote had asked for conviction of the journalist under the Criminal Code with a fine or imprisonment up to 1 year. In his final conclusions, the judge Sokol Tona gave argumentations that Gani could not prove to the court that the journalist had lied in his article. The court found Gani did not prove the charge of insulting either.

ECONOMY/ENVIRONMENT

SP and SMI get together over energy price (Gazeta Shqiptare p. 8, Standard p. 6, Korrieri p. 3)

The Socialist Party (SP) and the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) criticised yesterday the government’s latest decision on the increase of the electricity price for consumers. The SP Secretary for Human Resources Blendi Klos expressed his party’s concern over a statement by the Prime Minister Sali Berisha to have the energy price increased, in contrast with the Democratic Party (DP)’s earlier promise about removal of the valued taxes added (VAT) from this price. “The increase directly affects over 300,000 households. The government should make the compensation scheme transparent to the public,” Klosi said. At a press conference, the deputy head of the SMI Filloreta Kodra said that the latest moves by the Berisha-led government were among the most anti-social ones in the last 15 years. She called on the government to annul the proposal and to urgently open a public dialogue on the energy price.

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Foreign Committee to hear Chinese Ambassador today (Korrieri p. 5, Shqip p. 6)

The Socialist Party (SP) member of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy Kastriot Islami said yesterday that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Besnik Mustafaj should render account on the issue of the five Chinese who are sheltered in Albania after being released from a prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “We notice total indifference and lack of commitment on the part of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs to tackling this sensitive issue,” Islami said. He warned that if the request for information from the Ministry was ignored until next Tuesday, the SP would ask for a parliamentary questions & answers session with Minister Mustafaj. The head of the Committee Preç Zogaj will meet today the Chinese Ambassador in Tirana to get more information on the issue.

Compiled and written by Suela Shala