, the masses are politically oriented, the Communists obtain
the required ideological and political education, new members are
accepted into the Party, the masses are mobilized in production work,
the activities of the mass organizations are checked and guided, and
control is exercised over all economic sectors and over all local
governmental bodies.

The statute provides that in the armed forces Party affairs are to be
directed by the Political Directorate of the Ministry of People's
Defense and in the Ministry of the Interior they are to be directed by
appropriate political organs. Party organizations in the armed forces
operate on the basis of special instructions issued by the Party's
Central Committee. All chiefs of political branches in military units
and installations must be Party members with no less than five years of
membership. The political organs in the military units are required to
maintain close contact with the local Party committees (see ch. 9,
Internal and External Security).

The latest official figures for Party membership were given by Party
First Secretary Hoxha in his report to the Fifth Party Congress in 1966.
He placed the total membership at 66,327, of which 3,314 were candidate
members. Since the Fourth Party Congress in 1961 the membership had
grown by 12,688. According to Hoxha, the social composition of the Party
membership was as follows: workers, 32.9 percent; collective farmers,
25.8 percent; private farmers, 3.2 percent; state, Party, and mass
organization officials and armed forces personnel, 37.2 percent; and
students and housewives, 0.9 percent. Of the total Party membership,
women comprised 12.5 percent. Hoxha also said that nearly 68 percent of
all Communists lived in cities and only 32 percent in villages, despite
the fact, he commented, that the rural population was three times as
large as that of the cities.

Party Operations

A fundamental factor in the Party's exercise of political power and
control is the selection of candidates for all elected positions.
Although the candidates for such elective organs as the People's
Assembly, the people's courts, and the people's councils at all levels
are formally nominated by the meetings of mass organizations or of
workers and peasants, they have been, in fact, handpicked by the local
Party organizations and approved by the Party Central Committee.

The procedure at all nominating meetings is standard and simple: a list
of can