CEC fires top officials

TIRANA, Aug. 29 – The Central Election Commission said Tuesday that some department heads were fired and would very likely be penalized. Based on the report of the State High Control they fired five persons, mainly senior officials running different departments, for abuse with funds. They specified by name how each of them had allegedly abused certain amounts of money, in total taking the amount to 500 million leks. Normally such accusation should take them to court, though nothing was clear about their further efforts. It is also very likely that this move from their posts is linked with the fact they were nominated by the former head of the CEC who was a Socialist. The new head, Clirim Gjata, of the Democrats very likely may want his people to run.
The persons who were fired immediately reacted saying the move was politically motivated. They claimed the Democratic Party members have manipulated the commission’s report in order to fire them. But the CEC said they only applied the recommendations from the State High Control.