Opposition accuses governing Democrats’ Tirana candidate

TIRANA, April 27 – The opposition Socialist party is holding strong accusations against Lulzim Basha, the rival to Tirana mayor’s post for their leader Edi Rama.
The Socialists say that Basha has lied in its asset declaration disclosure over the real value of the sale of his house in the Netherlands some years ago.
Basha studied and then worked in The Netherlands, where he also bought an apartment which he sold the next year. The opposition says that he used a US passport though he was not a US citizen. Basha said that was a lapsus of the notary public who had made the document and on Wednesday local papers also mentioned the Dutch notary public officials admitting that. The opposition also accuses Basha for holding three diplomatic passports while he was a minister. Basha was first Transport Minister, to go to the Foreign Minister’s post and then to that of the Interior Minister. He resigned last month after he started to run for the capital’s town hall against existing mayor Rama.