Thursday, February 15, 2007

Bomb misses Tirana mayor up for re-election

Next sunday, February 18th, there will be the administrative elections in all Albania. The atmosphere hasn't been relaxed and now I have just discovered there were an explosion last night addressed to the current mayor. I wouldn't have expected something violent. I really hope it will remain an isolated case.
I paste this short article from Oxford Analytica.

An explosion damaged a Tirana pizzeria in the early hours of this morning minutes after Socialist Party (PS) Chairman Edi Rama and three PS parliamentary deputies left it, the police have announced. Rama is running for re-election as mayor of Tirana in Sunday's local elections. The campaign -- in which 1,000 candidates are standing across Albania -- has been dirty: last Sunday, the Sot newspaper published pictures of the 42-year-old Rama naked on a French nudist beach in 1995. The two sides are trading accusations of incompetence, corruption and deceit; the race in Tirana (where 20% of Albanians live) is particularly hot -- the ruling Democratic Party candidate is Interior Minister Sokol Olldashi (34), an up-and-coming former journalist. This weekend's local elections are a test of Albania's fledgling democracy (past elections have been marred by violence and fraud); Rama's track-record as mayor and whether he is a future leader of the country; and the Berisha national government's achievements after 18 months in power.

1 comment:

Miss Kim said...

Hi Marco,
Welcome to Tirana! Let's hope that todays elections go smoothly and that the country ends up with a good government.
I also have a blog about Tirana so I invite you to come and visit if you have the time-
www.acrossthelana.blogspot.com

Cheers! Kim