TIRANA, Nov. 30 – Pashko Ujka, a former member of the Albanian parliament who also served as mayor of Velipoja from 2011 to 2015, has been killed — shot in the back by a gunman using a silencer.
He was shot Monday evening in an ambush near his home in downtown Shkoder.
A statement by local police noted that 64-year-old Ujka was wounded in the shootout and sent to the Regional Hospital of Shkoder, where he succumbed to his wounds several hours later.
Police and prosecution oofficials were on the scene investigating the circumstances of the assassination.
Criminal experts told the local press there are suspicions related to Ujka’s duty as mayor of Velipoja back in the 2011-2015 period.
Velipoja has a lot of property conflicts, particularly because it administered one of the country’s largest seaside tourist areas and beaches.
Ujka was a member of the Christian Democratic movement, which has straddled Albania’s political divide, forming coalitions with both the right and the left and created a myriad of small parties.
Ujka won the Velipoja mayoral seat as a representative of the Christian Democratic Party (DPK), a part of the coalition “Alliance for the Future,” led by the Socialist Party. He managed to defeat incumbent Nikolle Marku, a representative of the Democratic Party.
During the 2005-2009 legislature, Ujka was a PDK MP and chairman of its parliamentary group, part of the coalition with the Democratic Party.
He entered the 2009 elections as part of the Christian Democratic Party led by Nikolle Lesi.
