[ALBSA-Info] FACTBOX-Key facts about Albania

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

FACTBOX-Key facts about Albania

  
TIRANA, June 24 (Reuters) - Following are key facts about Albania, which was 
holding parliamentary elections on Sunday. 

POPULATION: 3.5 million, with an average age of 25. Albanians are primarily 
Muslim. Other major groups are Christian Orthodox and Roman Catholics. 
Religious worship, banned in 1967, was legalised in 1990. 

AREA: 28,748 sq km (11,101 sq miles). Much of Albania is mountainous. It is 
surrounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, Macedonia to the east, Yugoslavia 
to the north and east and Greece to the south. 

POLITICS: Albania has a single-chamber parliament which, following a 
constitutional reform in 1998, has 140 members. Deputies are elected in 100 
constituencies on a "first-past-the-post" system, with the remaining 40 seats 
allocated on a proportional basis. The president is elected by parliament. 

GOVERNMENT: Socialist Prime Minister Ilir Meta, 32, heads a five-party 
coalition. Head of state is Rexhep Meidani, a physicist, who was elected 
president in 1997. 

ECONOMY: Albania recently lost the title of Europe's poorest country to 
Moldova but living standards remain low with average monthly wages of around 
$80. 

In 1997, annual inflation soared to 42.1 percent, while production fell seven 
percent. However, foreign aid has helped to stabilise the economy. 

In 2000, gross domestic product (GDP) increased 7.8 percent to $3.7 billion 
and GDP per capita was $1,130. The economy is expected to grow 7.3 percent in 
2001 while inflation is expected to be between two and four percent. 

Main industries are textiles, mining, food processing, oil products and 
cement. 

MODERN HISTORY: Albania gained independence in 1912 after 450 years of 
Ottoman rule. It became a monarchy in 1928 under King Zog, who fled after 
fascist Italy occupied the country in 1939. Albania was later seized by Nazi 
Germany and liberated by communist-led partisans in 1944. 

In 1945, Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha came to power after the election of a 
communist-dominated parliament. Albania was declared a People's Republic in 
1946. 

Hoxha ruled with an iron fist for 40 years, isolating his state under a 
policy of self-reliance. 

After his death in 1985, Hoxha was succeeded by Ramiz Alia, who cautiously 
opened the country to the West. However, intermittent civil unrest continued 
to plague the country. 

In December 1990, student protests forced Tirana to legalise opposition 
parties. In March 1991, the communist party won Albania's first multi-party 
elections and changed its name to the Socialist Party. 

In the run up to the second free elections in 1992, dozens were killed in 
food riots. The Democratic Party won a landslide victory over the 
ex-communists. Sali Berisha, a former heart surgeon, became Albania's first 
non-communist president in April 1992. 

Berisha's popularity waned as reforms began to bite, although his party 
claimed a landslide victory in controversial 1996 parliamentary elections. 

In February 1997, civil unrest broke out in the southern town of Vlore over 
the collapse of fraudulent pyramid investment schemes. Riots across the 
country escalated into a total nationwide breakdown of public order in which 
an estimated 2,000 people died . 

The United Nations Security Council authorised deployment of a 7,000 member 
Italian-led force to restore law and order. 

After a snap general election in June, 1997, the Socialists and their allies 
won a majority and Socialist Fatos Nano became prime minister at the head of 
a five-party coalition. 

The peacekeeping force completed its pullout in August 1997. 

Violence briefly erupted again in September 1998 after the murder of an 
opposition member of parliament. Nano resigned and his protege, Pandeli 
Majko, became prime minister at 31. 

Majko resigned in October 1999 when he failed to win the Socialist Party 
chairmanship against Nano, who chose Majko's deputy, economist Ilir Meta, to 
become prime minister. 

The popular Meta has lobbied hard for closer links with the European Union, 
which agreed to open negotiations with Albania on a Stabilisation and 
Association Agreement, the first formal step on the long road to EU 
membership.