TIRANA, Sept. 10 – Albania’s 10th legislature has started work with MPs coming out of the April 25 general elections taking their seats in parliament.
Following parliamentary rules, the oldest MP willing to do the opening, SP’s Luljeta Bozo, 78, led the morning session which then moved to set the procedures to vote in a new speaker of parliament in the afternoon session.
SP’s Lindita Nikolla, a former education minister and the second woman to hold the position, was chosen as speaker of parliament.
Albania’s parliament has 140 deputies, with the ruling Socialist Party holding 74 seats. The Democratic Party and allies who ran under its logo have 59, the Socialist Movement for Integration 4, and the Social Democratic Party 3.
SP enjoys a comfortable majority and its leader Edi Rama is expected to be sworn in for a third term as prime minister.
The new parliamentary session also marked the opposition’s return to parliament after more than two years of absence. Most DP and SMI MPs resigned their seats in protest in February 2019, leading to an unusual period of one-party rule.
