Berisha reshuffles ministers ahead of key local election

TIRANA, April 20 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha on Wednesday named Bujar Nishani as the new interior minister as the country is geared for local elections. Nishani, until now the justice minister, will replace Lulzim Basha as the new interior minister after Basha quit the post to contest the mayoral race for the capital, Tirana. Nishani has kept this post in the previous term of the governing Democratic Party. Basha is running against the leader of the Socialist party and current Tirana mayor, Edi Rama, who is seeking a fourth term in the May 8 poll. Berisha did not name a replacement for Nishani after announcing the change on Wednesday. Nishani, who served as Justice Minister after Berisha’s ruling Democratic Party won a second mandate in the 2009 elections contested by the opposition, comes to the Interior Ministry after having run it during the Democrats’ previous four-year term.
Nishani’s appointment also comes after a quarrel between two senior officials of the interior ministry _ acting minister, Avenir Peka, and police commander of a special riot police unit Shemsi Prenci, that soon turned into a political issue ahead of the May 8 polls. That was another reason that has likely could have obliged Berisha to name Nishani to oversee the work of security forces. But Berisha has also to fill the post of the tourism, culture, youth and sports ministry that is left vacant after former minister Ferdinand Xhaferri is running for the post of the mayor in the western port city of Durres, which has been run by the opposition Socialist Party over the last decade. The local elections come amid fierce political rivalry between Berisha’s governing Democratic Party and the opposition Socialists, who allege the government, rigged the general elections in 2009 to secure victory.