TIRANA, March 10 – The Constitutional Court will have to decide whether Socialist MP Koco Kokà«dhima, who faces opposition’s conflict of interest accusations, is to keep his MP mandate.
Both majority and opposition MPs voted in consensus on Thursday’s parliamentary session to take Kokedhima’s mandate to be examined by the Constitutional Court.
The opposition claims that Kokà«dhima, a person regarded as being close to Prime Minister Edi Rama, has received public funds while being a member of parliament which is incompatible with his parliamentary mandate.
The opposition maintains that an internet service provider owned by Kokà«dhima has been awarded several contracts with public institutions while the latter had already become a representative.
However, Kokà«dhima has defended himself by claiming that the contracts were awarded long before he became an MP and that ever since he is no longer a shareholder in any of the companies previously owned by him.
An earlier request by the opposition demanding the review of Kokà«dhima’s case by the Constitutional Court on conflict of interest grounds was turned down by parliament. The opposition took the case directly to the Constitutional Court, which ruled that conflict of interest cases will be reviewed by the court whenever a tenth of MPs request it.
Alongside Kokà«dhima, the opposition is demanding the termination of mandates on conflict of interest grounds for two other majority representatives Rakip Suli and Valentina Leskaj, Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
The termination of the MP mandates for the three majority representatives is also one of the opposition’s demands for resuming a normal relationship with parliament since in the latest session the opposition abandoned parliament and conditioned its return with three formal requests, one of which being the stepping down of the three MPs accused of conflict of interest.
A few years ago, the Constitutional Court ruled for the termination of the mandate of Socialist Party MP Ilir Beqja whose company had received public funds while being a representative at the same time.
