The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) from Ljubljana, Slovenia is regularly analyzing the events in the Middle East and the Balkans. IFIMES has been following the current political events in Albania with its approaching parliamentary elections on July 3, 2005. Dr. Sali Berisha, the first democratically elected President (former) of the Republic of Albania, and current President of the Democratic Party authorizes the article »Nano Government prepares manipulation of Elections« warning of possibile electoral fraud by the current socialist government and their leader Fatos Nano. We hereby publish with Dr. Berisha’s approval his article in full.
Dr. Sali Berisha
President of the Democratic Party and
the former President of the Republic of Albania
The Nano Government is preparing to manipulate the elections of the general elections of July 3 through using dozens of thousands of fake birth certificates for its supporters, so that they could cast their vote several times in different polling stations.
The government has acted as follows: The Ministry of Local Government has ordered all Municipalities that all voters whose names were in the permanent register of the Civil Office but who were not found in the existing address during the verification process to be registered under the 999 or 888 code (generally these are emigrants living abroad). According to the preliminary report of ODIHR for the period 31 May – 16 June 2005, it is established that 528,000 voters were registered under these codes. This constitutes 18% of the voters.
In the final lists, dozens of thousands of names under the codes 999 or 888 were replaced by the names of the Socialist Party militants. Suddenly, only a week before the elections, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Mr. Celibashi, stated to the media that in different towns thousands of birth certificates (the birth certificate with photo is a personal identification document along with passport and I.D.) had been lost a few months prior to the elections.
The Media informed that in Tirana only, 14 thousand certificates were lost, while employees of the administration of several Municipalities headed by socialists have informed about the issuing of more than one hundred thousand certificates for the socialist militants in Tirana, Durres, Vlore, Fier, Berat, etc. The names of the socialist supporters have replaced those of emigrants’ under the code 999, or 888.
In several meetings with the Democratic Party and other political parties, as well as in different public statements, which were reflected in the media on 25 June 2005, the Head of the Monitoring Mission of ODIHR, Ambassador Grunet has expressed his deep concern on the problem of certificates.
Following discussions with ODIHR, the Democratic Party submitted to the Central Election Commission the draft directive that the voters possessing a birth certificate, to vote in a separate ballot box and an SP-DP commission to be established at the voting centers, outside them, for a random verification of the voters with a birth certificate, in order to establish whether they live on the territory of the voting center and whether they reside in the address provided in the certificate.
The pro SP majority in the Central Election Commission rejected this proposal, paving thus the way for the manipulation of the electoral process and consequently of its result.
Today, it is learned that the company EDLOR Sh.p.k. which apparently is owned by a seventy-year-old woman, but in fact everybody knows that the real owner of this company is Shpetim Idrizi, the General Director of Customs and Taxation. This company has printed one hundred and forty thousand birth certificates and nobody knows where these certificates can be found.
The Mayor of Korca City has told me yesterday that, the last set of birth certificates which have been delivered to Korca, do contain only the District Code. On this point, the law requires that the birth certificates must contain also the specific code for the communes of the district. This is done to enable the supporters of the Socialist Party to vote in many communes of the district.
We would like to call on you to exert your influence and authority in order to make it possible that these two requests of the opposition aiming at preventing the massive manipulations by Fatos Nano and saving the electoral process are approved.
