The Balkans: Campaigning, Albanian-Style

Donkeys laden with firewood shambled about aimlessly among the crowd in the shabby central square in Mamuras, 19 mi. north of the Albanian capital of Tirana. The townsfolk's timeless talk about rain, marriages and hardship had given way to the excitement of an epochal event: the country's first free elections. "We want the same things as the rest of Europe -- freedom to go where we like, to work hard and to secure our future," said Shaban Sula, 37, who works on a nearby collective farm. But in Mamuras, where Europe seems like a distant continent, his words betrayed a wistfulness...