Basha to run against Rama for Tirana’s post

TIRANA, March 23 – Interior Minister Lulzim Basha will be the runner of the governing Democratic Party for the post of the Tirana mayorship at the May 8 local elections.
That was made officially public Tuesday at a meeting of the Democrats to commemorate the 19th anniversary of their victory over the former communist regime.
Basha is now the interior minister, a post which he is to leave when the legal battle will formally start.
Albania’s Socialist opposition is expected to nominate its candidate for the municipality of Tirana for the May 8 local elections soon though it is generally accepted that the existing mayor, their leader Edi Rama will run for the fourth time in the post.
Meanwhile the opposition Socialists have taken the battle also to another level. They filed a lawsuit Monday against Interior Minister Lulzim Basha, accusing him in connection with the deaths of four protestors during a January 21st anti-government rally. They also accused state police head Hysni Burgaj and the head of Tirana police Sajmir Mucaj. The lawsuit was signed by 25 lawmakers.
It is not clear whether the prosecutors may immediately start the investigation on Basha. The governing Democrats have passed a law earlier this month where they all voluntarily lifted their parliamentary immunity. But it is not clear whether that means that prosecutors are free to prosecute.
The protest of January 21 turned into a riot when several hundred anti-government protesters attacked the police barricade set up to protect the prime minister’s office, using sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails.
Police responded with tear gas, water cannons and later with live ammunition fire.
Prosecutors are currently investigating the alleged murders, the organizers of the protest and the violent demonstrators that attacked the police. But only one officer of the Republican Guard serving there is under arrest.
The recent tension between Rama’s Socialists and the ruling majority of Prime Minister Sali Berisha have been locked in a power struggle since the June 2009 elections.
The Socialists allege that Berisha stole the elections through voter fraud, while the ruling majority rejects the accusations as baseless and maintains that the polls were the best the country has ever held.