Our Man in Tirana

The Washington Post has a lengthy article on the phenomenon of sworn virgins . Elvira Dones , an Albanian born author and journalist has recently made a film on this theme. Also looking at women in Albanian society, Nicole Itano reports for Women's eNews on the experience of Roma women . MSNBC carries an FT report on the problems facing small businesses in Albania trying to cope with hours-long power cuts every day. The report quotes the Prime Minister's claims that Albania has reached a 'turning point' and that within four years the country will be exporting electricity. The Economist has a piece on President Topi . The author believes that the President will support measures to limit the term of office for the Chief Prosecutor, thus dealing with the Sollaku issue. In contrast to the Prime Minister's optimism, the Economist reports that 'plans for private investors to build new power plants are way behind schedule.' Forbes carries an AP story on US attemp...

Game, set and match to Berisha then. In the fourth round of voting the Democratic Party candidate - and vice-chairman of the party - was elected to the post of President with 85 votes. Neritan Ceka, the only other candidate received only 5. The key difference this time was the presence of 7 opposition MP's who took part in the voting and backed Topi. Ben Blushi, chairman of the Socialist Party in parliament, subsequently resigned from his post and Edi Rama denounced the 7 as 'treacherous.' Some commentators suggested that this was Nano's revenge. Unable to take the post of President himself, he undermined Rama's leadership in the most effective way he could, by getting his remaining supporters to back Topi. Was there a deal? In time it may become clearer. Certainly, Berisha was very confident after the third vote that there would be a result in this round and that Topi would win. Of course, that might have been no more than political bluff. Topi himself is working h...

IPS has another couple of articles on Albania. One looks at attempts to manage biodiversity , the other at efforts to manage waste disposal . A list of all the recent IPS articles on Albania with links is also available . BIRN has a summary of the state of play in the Presidential election as the next vote approaches, and a report on criticism from PAMECA , the EU police mission in Albania, of the recent sackings of large numbers of police officers - many of them trained by PAMECA. The South East Europe Media Organisation has added its voice to criticism of the fine slapped on Top Media. Finally the Times has the articles on the death of Prel Marku , an Albanian living in London, who was the innocent victim of a conflict between Albanian criminal gangs in the city .

New developments! On Saturday Parliament held a third ballot for the post of President and we had a new candidate. Neritan Ceka is leader of the Democratic Alliance, a small party which is part of the opposition coalition. A good portion of Topi's support switched to Ceka: Topi had 50 votes, Ceka 32. Nano, having peaked at 5 votes, dropped back to 3 and has now been eliminated since only the two top candidates go forward to the final two rounds. While the SP boycotted the ballot once more, for the first time the total number of votes cast passed the crucial figure of 84 - the number of votes required to elect a President. Clearly Berisha is struggling to hold his coalition together. His Democratic Party, which has 56 seats, obviously backed Topi, but his coalition partners backed Ceka. I watched Nard Ndoka, leader of the Christian Democrats and Minister for Health, publicly endorse Ceka. Newspapers have reported that Fatmir Mediu, leader of the Republican Party and Minister for De...

On Tuesday, Parliament tried again to elect a President and, again, failed . The same two candidates were standing - Topi and Nano - and the result was broadly similar: Topi 74, Nano 5. There seems to be some confusion over how many of the five rounds of voting have now been completed. If the two postponed rounds are counted then there is only one vote left. If only actual votes are counted then there are three more opportunities to find a President. If anyone knows which is correct please enlighten me. Either way, though, it seems immaterial. Clearly there was no progress on finding a consensus candidate between the first and second votes, and there seems to be no great urgency to produce one. It seems instead that both parties are now resigned to - or perhaps enthusiastically looking forward to - a general election. How a general election will help, I don't know. There are no new people, no new parties and no new ideas out there. A general election will merely reshuffle the exist...

Parliament finally held a first ballot for a new President , though since earlier votes had been postponed this was actually the third round of voting. Unfortunately, in the absence of an agreed candidate the choice was between the DP nomination Bamir Topi and Fatos Nano. Topi got 75 votes, Nano got 3. The opposition refused to take part in the vote. There are two more rounds of voting possible between now and 24 July when the term of office of the current President Alfred Moisiu ends. After that, there will have to be a general election - a pointless distraction, bound to be bitter and divisive, and a nail in the coffin of Albania's EU and NATO aspirations. Yet it seems that the opposition can't wait. "The Socialist Party has switched on the engines for early elections," said Rama, according to the IHT.

Here are a few more articles I have come across in the last few days. The IHT is one of the few English language papers reporting on the Presidential election. The most recent report identifies a potential consensus candidate, Brigadier General Arjan Zaimi, but suggests that no consensus was forthcoming. With no candidates to vote for and no sign of agreement the country drifts closer to pointless elections. Elsewhere Christianity Today had a piece on trafficking , the International Water Power and Dam Construction magazine reports a proposal by an Austrian company to build new hydro plants on the Devol river, and the BBC has a story about Butrint .

The IPS news agency have published more articles on Albania. A couple of articles look at the relationship between tourism and the environment . Another looks at the similarities between Albania and other countries in the region. Then there is an interview with Jozefina Topalli , Speaker of the Parliament and lastly a piece on Tirana . Elsewhere, the IHT reports that attempts to elect a President are still going nowhere. Also going nowhere is the power supply situation with long blackouts anticipated in September . In the Southeast European Times Robert Austin suggests that the longer term outlook may be brighter following the appointment of a new director of KESH, Xherxh Bojaxhi. I can confirm Austin's claim that Bojaxhi takes to the field with his staff since he turned up to read my electricity meter last week. (It's not that I'm special. It's just that the day before I had refused to allow his staff to do so on the perfectly reasonable grounds that none of them h...

In the soap opera of Albanian politics today's episode should be about the election of a new President. The first of up to five votes is scheduled for today, though there is no guarantee that it will go ahead. The two leading candidates are Bamir Topi who is the nominee of the ruling Democratic Party, and Fatos Nano who has the support of some members of the Socialist Party, which he once led, but not of current leader, Edi Rama. To win, one candidate must get the support of three-fifths of the members of parliament. The problem is that no one party or coalition can reach that target without outside support. If no candidate can get that support after the process is completed then, under the constitution, there has to be a general election. Previously the Socialists had considered boycotting the election in order to force early elections. This, in turn, gave rise to speculation that Berisha and Nano - old political enemies - had done a deal whereby the Democrats would back Nano. The...