TIRANA, March 6 – Parliament has decided to postpone the planned extraordinary session in regards to the establishment of an ad-hoc commission that will nominate members of institutions that will inquire into the background of judges and prosecutors, also known as the vetting process.
The Socialist Party parliamentary group called for the postponement while the assembly decided to send back to the Ombudsman Office the list of applicants for the vetting bodies.
“There were 21 candidates for 28 spots, but there is a second list of about 70 applicants that did not meet the criteria due to a lack of documents. Due to the limited time in the review and lack of experience from the Ombudsman Office and applicants we call for the postponement of the vote,” Gramoz Ruci, head of the Socialist Party parliamentary group said.
Ruci argued that the Ombudsman Office must be given a week to call applicants and ask them to submit the missing documents.
The parliament called an extraordinary meeting, Monday night, but the session was postponed as a result of a tàªte-à -tàªte meeting between Prime Minister Edi Rama and Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta held on Monday, while opposition leader, Lulzim Basha, announced that Democratic Party would continue to boycott parliament.
Earlier, Meta sent an official letter to the chairmen of parliamentary groups requesting their proposals for the members of the ad-hoc committee. Based on the constitutional amendments, the ad-hoc committee must have three members from the ruling majority and three from the opposition.
The Democratic Party has made it clear that it would not return to parliament unless an interim caretaker government is formed, hence hampering any efforts to implement the justice reform. Any decision for the selection of candidates requires a minimum of four votes.
Local media has speculated that the opposition could be represented by the Party for Justice and Unity, a Socialist ally that ran in the last elections in a coalition with a Democrats, meaning that the party can step in and send the names of three candidates hinting a possible unilateral approval of the ad-hoc commission.
This scenario sparked anger among several politicians such as the former minister of justice, Ylli Manjani, who took to social media and say that “the formation of vetting organs without the opposition is a constitutional coup d’à©tat.”
Last week, international experts evaluated a list of 193 candidates for the vetting bodies and concluded that only 29 of them met the requirements. Experts recommended 21 candidates that must be reviewed by parliament.
