POLITICAL infighting in Albania intensified yesterday when the government said it would not countersign a presidential decree to regulate pyramid investment schemes which were the cause of demonstrations leading to near anarchy earlier this year.
The refusal, just days ahead of a general election, dimmed prospects for a speedy resolution of the crisis which has engulfed Albania, following the collapse of five such funds. An estimated 1,500 people have been killed since March.
President Sali Eerisha, responding to urgent pleas from the Inter national Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, on Tuesday approved legislation to control the schemes and quell social unrest in Europe's poorest country.
But the Finance Minister, Mr Arben Malaj, a member of the Socialist Party challenging Mr Berisha's Democratic Party in Sunday's election, told a news conference yesterday the government had no intention of signing the decree. Mr Berisha, he said, had altered several key aspects of the draft presented by Albania's multiparty interim government.
"We cannot sign the decree which (represents) a change from the original draft presented by the government. All the changes should first be approved by the government," Mr Malaj said.
The breakdown of the five pyramid investment schemes sparked a huge wave of violence. The Socialists are now in government after a coalition administration was formed in March.
Mr Malaj said there was little chance that the political standoff could be resolved before the elections, widely seen as the only hope for restoring peace in Albania.
"There were very good odds to have this law approved before the elections," he said. "But I really cannot be held responsible for the president's actions."
The decree was aimed at establishing clearer rules for setting up investment funds and monitoring their activities. It also provided for domestic as well as international auditors to oversee their day to day business.
Mr Malaj said Mr Berisha had deleted references outlining the exact procedures governing the appointment of the auditors. The president also wanted the Finance Minister personally to be in charge of monitoring the success of the legislation, rather than the government as a whole, he added.
According to government estimates, at least £750 million in savings was wiped out when the five schemes, in which interest to existing depositors was paid with deposits from new investors, collapsed at the start of the year.
Mr Malaj said Mr Berisha's Democrats had ignored calls to reign in the funds, which offered huge rates of return to investors who had little awareness of market economics after 45 years under one of the world's harshest Stalinist regimes.
"The government was aware (of the problem) since 1995 and if it had intervened the consequences would now be much smaller and the amount of money lost not as big," Mr Malaj said.
. Troops from the Italian led multinational force in Albania are in place, ready to provide security for international observers monitoring the elections, the force's coordinating body said yesterday.
The statement said troops from the multinational force were being stationed wherever the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was posting its 238 teams of observers "to ensure, as fully as possible, general security conditions".
Some 6,500 soldiers from the force have been deployed in Albania since midApril and are scheduled to stay until the middle of August to protect international organisations and aid deliveries.