Tirana Times editorial
TIRANA, Aug. 16 – Albanians often compare their own governance to that of the most advanced countries in the world to point out to faults of problems they face. As the world’s democratic powerhouse, the United States is often seen as the golden standard. The U.S. presidential republic has a somewhat different system from Albania’s typical European parliamentary model, but the concept of separation of powers – executive, legislative and judiciary – applies to both countries.
The United States has perfected its own type of separation of powers – defined as “checks and balances.” It’s main aims is to prevent one branch from becoming supreme and protect the minority from the majority.
Albania’s new and fragile democracy, with the help of Euro-Atlantic allies has set up institutions and agencies to do the same. This country’s constitution lists of series of independent institutions that are set to run free of political influence. These include the Institution of the President, the Prosecutor General, the High Council of Justice and the State Information Service among several others. They are designed by law to run outside the immediate supervision of the prime minister as the country’s chief executive, for a reason – to keep them outside political control and to keep the prime minister in check in a country that has seen negative effects from an omnipotent executive.
The current prime minister, Sali Berisha, has never liked the limitation of his powers and has done everything in his power to ebb way at the limitations, either by trying to change the laws or by placing his trusted people in the posts that are supposed to be independent.
Through the help of a Socialist opposition that thought it would come to power and use these institutions to their own advantage, Mr. Berisha changed the constitution over night several years ago. The selection of President Bujar Nishani, a Democratic Party leader and ally of Mr. Berisha, as president in a non-consensual vote in parliament was a direct results of these changes. Mr. Nishani now holds the keys to all other independent institutions and he quickly acted last week to do the prime minister’s bidding in replacing the heads of the High Council of Justice and the State Information Service (or SHISH as the country’s primary intelligence service is known by its Albanian acronym) with officials chosen by the prime minister.
The president has also hinted that he will also replace Prosecutor General Ina Rama, who remains the last independent official outside government control. Her replacement would mean an almost full executive control on the justice system, as the executive already has strong influence in courts of all levels, including the appellate courts and constitutional courts.
The president, who was elected in a legal and constitutional process, is showing with his actions in office that he intends to follow the prime minister’s course rather than an independent once, which constitutionally includes serving as a symbol of national unity.
If President Nishani’s decisions in these dog days of summer are any indication of the future, the institution of the head of state is now under control of the prime minister as well.
Now that the prime minister, working with the president, have placed former government officials to head key independent state agencies, only time will tell whether the government will misuse its newly-gained influence. But the opposition is already crying foul. It is particularly scared that an intelligence service under political control could be used against the opposition as it was in the darkest days of Albanian democracy in 1997.
Let’s hope these fears are unfounded. But for now, one thing is for sure: Albania’s own version “checks and balances” has crumbled.
