Albanians Vote in Key Test of Transition

TIRANA, Albania - Albanians chose a new parliament on Sunday in elections that mark a crucial step in the tiny Balkan country's push for closer ties with Europe, but local observers raised concerns over voting procedures in rural areas.

Previous elections in Albania, which was sealed off from the world during decades of communist rule that ended in 1990, have been plagued by fraud and irregularities. Sunday's voting is being watched as a test of the impoverished nation's ability to hold a fair election.

Both NATO and the European Union have warned Albanian authorities that only free and fair elections will further its bid for membership in the organizations. The United States has said the poll will be a major milestone in Albania's transformation into a fully democratic European country.

"This is an opportunity we should seize because we have lost much time ... to show we are part of Europe," Albanian President Alfred Moisiu said after casting his ballot.

Local monitors said they were investigating reports of voting without identification documents, mainly in rural areas, as well as multiple voting and voting in groups, monitor Pjerin Marku said.

Moisiu appealed to political parties to exercise restraint and avoid making any announcements before polls close.

"That could damage the counting process and consequently the elections' final result," Moisiu said in a statement.

The observers appealed to political parties not to raise tensions.

The vote is being monitored by about 500 international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe and a European network of non-governmental organizations. About 4,000 local monitors are also taking part.

The main contenders — Socialist Prime Minister Fatos Nano and his rival, Sali Berisha, a former president and leader of the Democratic Party — have stressed the election is a chance to show the world how far Albania's democracy has come. Pre-election polls show the two parties in a tight race.

Both the Socialists and Democrats back close ties with Washington and Albanian troop deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia. Integration in NATO and the EU is supported by both as well.

A key difference is the Democratic Party's proposal to cut taxes in half to promote investment, an idea the Socialists reject.

Some 2.8 million Albanians were eligible to vote, choosing from 22 political parties and coalitions running for the 140-seat parliament.

Official results were not expected until late Monday.

Television station TV Klan was expected to release the only exit poll — the first such survey for elections in Albania.

The poll will be conducted by the Kosovo-based Gani Bobi organization, which in the past has conducted media monitoring, surveys and other research, but not exit polls. Gani Bobi said the poll will be based on 8,000 interviews in 450 polling stations.

Albanian police chief Bajram Ibraj said 6,350 police officers have been deployed throughout the country to prevent clashes between rival supporters and protect ballot boxes.

Dasantila Bejko, a 35-year-old economist, was among the first to vote in a downtown polling station in the capital, Tirana. She said she hoped the vote would help ease poverty in a country fighting double-digit unemployment.

"This vote will not bring about any great difference to my life," Bejko said. "But it ought to make a difference for the poor, no matter who comes to power."

Wiz, dj is a Serb nationalist. He goes into paroxysms of posting the same tangentially relevant old articles anytime something good is posted about Albania.

DJ is a Serb patriot....and Mark loves posting threads from George Soros and he knows how to copy/paste his propaganda effectively on FR....

Child Trafficking in Albania

Albanians are a problem for Europe just because of their history of crime...

Albania is currently about 70% muslim, and muslim they will probably remain for a very long time. I was there last year visiting, and while there were some christians, the vast majority identify themselves as muslim. Even though the younger generations were raised with no religion at all, they generally identify themselves as muslim. However, they're a different kind of muslim than Iran or Iraq. They drink, party, dance endlessly... Albania was a great time. Beautiful untouched beaches in the south, good food and drink in Tirana, Berat was beautiful, and the hole trip was cheap, cheap, cheap... after the plane ticket.

Well the ones who live there said 70% was the approximately number, and they seemed to know a little bit about the country they were born in, and lived their entire lives in. I know there were far more mosques than churches in the cities I visited, which was most of the major ones, south to north and then back again. I know the people who lived there showed me how the smaller cities were divided into muslim and catholic (north) or orthodox (south) "burroughs," and it was pretty clear the muslim burrough was larger. I know I could always here the speakers on the mosques in the morning. And lastly, I know my wife, who was born and raised in Albania, says that most Albanians are muslims, but she went to school with a few catholics (north) too.

"Well the ones who live there said 70% was the approximately number, and they seemed to know a little bit about the country they were born in"

True enough, but do they really know the current statistics or are they basically just repeating old and historic ones.

"I know there were far more mosques than churches in the cities I visited"

Yes, but they were probably, at least for the most part, old mosques. Also I meant that the 70% figure was the historic statistic and that times might well have changed.

"And lastly, I know my wife, who was born and raised in Albania, says that most Albanians are muslims"

Yes, most ALbanians have historically been Mohammedans, but as I said times might well change. After all, I beleive that since the fall of communism, more people are starting to become interested in Christianity, even those who were of more or less Moslem background, or so I have heard.

BTW, just out of curiosity, is you wife a Moslem or non-Moslem? I'm just curious.

True enough, but do they really know the current statistics...
They seemed too. My wife actually looked at some stats when we were there and couldn't believe that the nonreligious number was so large (it was something tiny, like 5%).

Yes, but they were probably, at least for the most part, old mosques.
And there were lots of new mosques too. There are lots of christians from America evangelizing there, (which may be were you heard Albanians were becoming christian en masse.) But there are lots of muslims from muslim countries doing the same, (they probably say Albanians are re-becoming muslims en masse.) For the most part, they go to the countryside where people are totally isolated, and very, very poor (it took us 5 hours to *drive* about 85 miles... The folk who live there have no car). In the cities, foreign evangelists mostly limit themselves to building/funding new churches, and building/funding mosques, rather than the wave the book on the street corner style of evangelism.

I don't think evangelism will work though the way they think it will though. They had a saying... The religion of Albanians is Albanism, which means they make their own stuff up from a mix of everything, add a dash of national pride, and get along just fine. I heard that saying many times... they're proud of their religious uniqueness.

...more people are starting to become interested in Christianity...
Since the fall of communism, religion has become kind of fashionable among some of the younger generation, but they roughly seem to get back in touch with the religion of the grandparents. Funny thing is, it seems to be most prevalent among the Albanians outside Albania.

By the way...
My wife has a Muslim surname. By practice, she's agnostic. Much of her generation and the one before her fits that mold... she grew up in the dying years of the communist regime.

Take a look at the following site. It's pretty interesting, IMHO:

http://members.aol.com/Plaku/religio.htm

This site says that about 60% of Albanians may be Moslem, 25%+ Orthodox, and 15% Catholic.

http://www.adherents.com/adhloc/Wh_9.html

The following site gives another estimate of religious affiliation:

http://www.landmarkbaptisttemple.com/ra/EEE%20Brochure%202000.pdf

Muslim 40% Orthodox 11% Athiest 42% All other 8%

With all the various statistics, who can say what the exact figures are. I don't know if even God Himself know! :-)

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