3 May 2010

Albanians demand vote recount

Thousands of opposition protesters have gathered in the Albanian capital, Tirana, to demand a recount of votes from last June's parliamentary elections.

tirana

At least 200 of them, including 22 Socialist party supporters, put up tents in a central square where they planned to stage a hunger strike, party officials said.

"This is a sacrifice we will make till the very end," Edi Rama, the leader of the Socialist party and mayor of Tirana, told protestors at Saturday's rally.
The protest and hunger strike were the latest developments in a political crisis that has brought the workings of government to a virtual standstill since the elections.

The coalition government of Sali Berisha, the country's prime minister, won 75 of parliament's 140 seats on June 28, but the socialists have said that the result was manipulated.
They have boycotted parliament to press their call for a recount, a demand that Berisha has said is illegal.

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Mao-Hoxha

Enver Hoxha, (16 October 1908 – 11 April 1985) was the Communist leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania. More here and here.