Albania Lurches Toward Elections

Masked men waving grenade launchers stopped traffic at a bend in Albania’s principal north-south road. Half a mile away, more men, tattooed and in tank tops, fired automatic rifles into the air and cursed the Democrats. And in the nearby town of Lezha, a rival gang dragged trucks and cars across the road to block the rumored approach of a Socialist candidate.

It’s a typical day on the campaign trail in Albania.

National elections Sunday will give Albania a new parliament and, many hope, relief from the chaos that has reigned here since the collapse of shady pyramid schemes escalated into widespread revolt and gangland warfare.

In truth, more bloodshed is likely because the results of voting will anger one side or the other. Many Albanians--especially those in the rebellious south--see the election as a referendum on President Sali Berisha, whom they blame for the crisis, and they will be satisfied with nothing short of his removal.

The international community here to monitor the vote has given up on the notion of assuring free and fair elections, hoping instead for something vaguely defined as “acceptable” and “credible.”

An Italian-led multinational military peacekeeping force, derided by Albanians as armed tourists, has gone to great lengths to limit its own duties. The force refused to venture into several towns to escort election monitors on election day, saying it was too dangerous.

And Berisha, who seemed on the verge of falling from power last spring, has managed to extend sufficient control over the election process to make possible some of the same fraud that gave his party an overwhelming victory last year, despite several internationally imposed safeguards, analysts say. Berisha continues to control what’s left of the police, secret police and state television. His agents will be guarding ballot boxes and polling stations on Sunday.

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Fifty years of Communist dictatorship, and five years of corrupt capitalism when stability was more important than democracy, have left Europe’s poorest nation devoid of the political culture that might rescue it.

Elections are being held in a country where nearly every state institution crumbled in the bloody unrest that convulsed Albania and triggered a new wave of refugees.

Large swaths of the country are effectively ruled by armed gangs, without a functioning police force, army, judiciary or city hall; many cities haven’t had a mayor in months. The economy, which had been growing steadily, is now in ruins. Many people are jobless, and prices are soaring.

And, after the anarchy that allowed Albanians to empty army depots, almost every citizen in the country now has a gun. Although the violence has eased compared to earlier in the year, hundreds of people have been killed.

“Right now, we have an armed peace, an equilibrium in anarchy,” political commentator Remzi Lani said. “At their very base, these elections are already contested. I am not afraid of a civil war, but I am afraid of a new level of anarchy.”

Regardless of how the vote turns out, the new leaders will have to find a way to restore law and order and will also be forced to confront pyramid schemes that continue to undermine economic recovery.

At least five schemes, including the largest, Vefa Holdings, continue to operate; international lending agencies have told the Albanians that there will be no new aid until the companies are shut down.

“All of Albania’s problems will not be solved if Berisha goes out the door,” a Western diplomat said. “You have 10 parties here [that] can’t even agree on tying their shoes. . . . There are fundamental problems here that are not solvable.”

Berisha, reelected to a five-year term in March by the parliament he controls, has said he will step down if the Socialists win.

But Berisha has no legal obligation to do so, and diplomats believe that he will find a way to justify remaining in office, regardless of the results.

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Berisha and the Democratic Party can claim that they were not allowed to campaign freely and will undoubtedly call into question the results in the south. Their principal rival, the Socialist Party, will also be able to claim harassment of its candidates and that it was denied equal access to television.

While Berisha controls the presidency and the parliament, he was forced to name a “government of reconciliation” in March, with a Socialist prime minister and several Socialist Cabinet members. Often the government seems a two-headed monster at war with itself, each party managing to obstruct the other.

Both Democrats and Socialists say they expect to win Sunday.

Diplomats give a slight edge to the Socialists, but add that it will be close, which they said will make cheating more likely.

More than 500 international monitors are being deployed to survey a portion of 4,600 polling stations.

In Vlore, the southern city at the heart of the anti-Berisha revolt, gun battles have raged all week between rival gangs--one claiming ties to Berisha’s Democrats, the other claiming to support the Socialists.

But inside the chipped pinkish walls of the Jani Minga schoolhouse, election officials were putting together an election. They were checking off names of poll workers and confirming identity numbers. All, including the representative of the Democratic Party, said Berisha had to go.

“This time, we are voting just to get rid of Berisha,” said Shatip Basho, vice chairman of the local election committee. “We can have another election in six months or so to vote for another government.”

Fjodor Cobaj, the Democrat and a former police officer, said Berisha had stirred up too much trouble.

“It’s simple: Berisha steps down, and then we can all find an understanding,” he said.

Gani Boda, a grizzled 58-year-old who formerly supported the Democrats, said he was confident elections in Vlore, at least, would be safe.

“The fact that everyone has a weapon will maintain a certain balance,” he said with a smile.

Asked if they had guns, the election officials replied almost in unison: “Two! Three!”

“And grenades,” added one of the men.

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In the town of Lezha, about 45 miles north of Tirana, the capital, armed Berisha supporters cut off the road when they heard a rumor that Socialist leader Fatos Nano would be traveling nearby. Armed Socialist supporters up the road vowed to break through.

“They unblock the road, or the war starts here,” snarled one gunman with long curls and a scorpion tattoo as he hung from the window of a black Jeep Cherokee Limited Executive.

Eventually the Berisha supporters reopened the road, but not until they caused huge traffic snarls.

Among those caught in the jam was an armored personnel carrier with Spanish peacekeeping troops. It was not their job, they said, to keep the road open. Nor, apparently, to disarm the men with grenade launchers strolling by.

Stability in Albania is important to the West because many of the stolen weapons are believed to be filtering over international borders to parts of the former Yugoslavia. Fear of additional waves of desperate refugees is another concern.

In their handful of campaign appearances, the Socialists harped on one theme: ousting Berisha.

On Friday, they announced the formation of a post-election coalition with two other parties that will be prepared to govern, depoliticize the police and restructure the executive branch to limit presidential powers.

Berisha has used his campaign appearances to invoke dread of the old Communists--the precursor to today’s Socialist Party--who abandoned power in 1990. He brands the Socialists leftist extremists in league with paid killers and terrorists.

Drita Seferi, a middle-class mother of two who runs a private store, was among several thousand people cheering Berisha at his closing rally Friday night.

“We don’t want to take a step backward . . . back to isolation,” Seferi, 45, said. “I have a better life, better than before. Until 1990, we didn’t even have a color TV. The Socialists in this country follow in the footsteps of the Communists, however they try to portray themselves.”

After the rally, Berisha supporters marched through streets of downtown Tirana. The Socialists held their own closing rally earlier in the day.