committed to democratic socialism, rather than a Marxist-Leninism approach as the Workers Party is. Political Issues The major issues in the last election had to deal with the people losing trust in the Fine Gael and gaining more trust in the Fianna Fail due to the scandals of their previous Prime Minister. In re to the Northern Ireland issue the Prime Minister and English Prime Minister, Tony Blair agreed on the need for an IRA cease-fire and opened up Talks with the Sinn Fein for a peace agreement. With the cease-fire continuing to hold, Ahern announced that Ireland was ready to drop its claim to sovereignty over Northern Ireland. This was an option that was intensely debated in the 1998 “all-party” talks in early 1998(Political Handbook 447) Republic of Albania The Republic of Albania is one of the smallest and least advanced of European nation. In 1912 Albania gained independence from the Ottoman Empire but was in a state of confusion until 1928 when a monarchy was proclaimed. They would remain under communist rule and total isolation until 199o when then president Alia proclaimed an end to their policy of total isolation. They would then declare a number of major political reforms such as an end to the ban on religious activity, liberalization of the penal code, increases autonomy in enterprise decision making, and the right to passports to any Albanian to under the age of six. Following widespread demonstrations the Democratic Party of Albania was established. This was the first opposition party since communist rule. Government The Albanian government is a presidential system with a unicameral legislature. The Executive branch consists of The chief of state, President of the Republic Rexhep Meidani (Socialist Party of Albania) was elected in 1997 to a five year term elected by the Peoples Assembly due to the resignation of former Democratic Party president Sali Berisha. The president holds all of the executive power. T...
