RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 234, Part II, 15 December 2003

ALBANIAN SOCIALIST LEADER CRACKS THE WHIP. On 14 December in Tirana,
delegates to a two-day congress of the Albanian Socialist Party
re-elected Prime Minister Fatos Nano party leader with 465 votes to
65 for former President Rexhep Meidani, and 41 for Tirana's Mayor Edi
Rama, Reuters and dpa reported. The congress approved a change to the
party statutes, according to which Socialist members of the
parliament must vote according to the decisions reached by the
party's legislative caucus on important matters, or give up their
mandates. Nano's supporters introduced the change to discipline a
rival faction led by former Prime Minister Ilir Meta, which has
joined with the opposition in recent months to block Nano's attempts
to appoint a foreign minister and an interior minister (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 12 November 2003). Meta's supporters said Nano packed the
congress with his backers and government employees, who were
pressured into supporting him. In November, the EU warned Albania
that it should stop wasting time on internal political rivalries and
concentrate energies on implementing reforms (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
3 February and 10 November 2003, and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 27 June
2003). PM