TIRANA, Jan. 24 – The country’s opposition said this week it sees as illegitimate the five candidates selected from the ten-name draw to appoint members not belonging to the ranks of judges and prosecutors for the High Council of Prosecution (HCP) and the High Judicial Council (HJC).
Both the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration say many candidates don’t meet the legal requirements for the post on professional and moral grounds.
Moreover, they made accusations that process-related information was kept from some opposition candidates, thus automatically disqualifying them from it.
According to the DP, candidates Altin Hazizaj, Sokol Lamaj and Ilir Panda should not be part of the HJC list, while Kozma Jano and Alfred Balla should be excluded from the HCP list.
Most of the above-mentioned candidates’ issues raised by the DP are either related to their pasts, which are allegedly criminal, or related to unsettled taxes. In Jano’s case, he is accused of being tied to Albania’s notorious Sigurimi communist-era secret police.
Their claims were also based on information from the International Monitoring Operation (IMO), which, according to the opposition, disqualified a part of candidates who were later re-qualified by the parliament’s secretary general.
Democratic MP Oerd Bylykbashi said “this kind of draw, that has produced these kinds of candidates, with obvious political influence and unfulfilled legal requirements and other unacceptable issues, cannot be a trustworthy draw.”
Jano, meanwhile, reacted to the DP’s accusation through a media statement, denying all relations with Sigurimi.
“I have not been involved in any relations with the State Security, and I have not harmed any persons, in any way, both during dictatorship and democracy, as an individual and as a person holding a public post,” Jano said.
Moreover, Jano said the documents published by the DP in the party’s official webpage are made-up facts brought forward to ruin his reputation and hamper progress.
The issue will be reopened in parliament, as the lists should be approved by a qualified majority. However, in case the lists are turned down three times in a row without a consensus reached, they are approved automatically.
