Political Power to the People

Candidates seeking election as deputies are selected by a vast democratic process of electors meetings which examine the record of each candidate in detail to ensure that he really has proved himself worthy of being their representative. No Albanian would vote for some unknown candidate picked by a tiny party selection committee, as is usually the case in N.Z. Having got his name on the ballot paper, to be elected the candidate has then to win not less than 51% of the total voters on the roll to cast their secret ballots for him on polling day. (Not many N.Z. M.P's could meet this condition). And after all these safeguards, the electors still have the right of recall if their deputy does not properly fulfill his role as their representative. In the 1970 general elections in Albania, every eligible voter actually cast his vote and more than 99.9% of them voted to endorse the candidates selected.

The Party of Labour of Albania is the leading force of the Albanian people. It has won the complete trust of the whole population through its correct policies and the self-sacrificing efforts of its members to lead the people in solving their many difficult and complicated problems through years of heroic class struggle. It is a true communist party, guided by the principles of Marxism-Leninism, and linked with the masses of the people by indissoluble bonds forged in joint struggles. It is the leader, but in no way the master of the people. The Party exists only to serve the people, who, for their part, send forward the best social activists into the ranks of the Party to serve as their leadership.

They never relax their vigilance to nip in the bud any tendency of persons in leading positions to develop into a new class of bureaucratic rulers of the people. To be accepted as a member of the Albanian Party of Labour is the greatest honour for an Albanian, but it brings no privileges whatsoever — only greater social responsibilities.

In Albania state power remains the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e. power is in the hands of the alliance of working people under the leadership of the industrial working class. To establish their power the people had first to smash the reactionary state power of foreign and local oppressor and exploiter classes by armed struggle. Today the people carefully guard their state power with the weapons which they keep in their own hands. This is the guarantee of ever greater democracy for the working masses and ever diminishing hopes for the restoration of the old order in Albania. The people's state power will continue to be perfected and grow stronger for a long period, until capitalism has been defeated by the working people of each country and there is no longer any danger of intervention by the forces of imperialism in the military, political, or ideological spheres. At that point it will become unnecessary and will "wither away".