Political row moves to CoE

TIRANA, Jan 27 – It started with Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli asking the Council of Europe to replace its Albanian commissioner, Aleksander Biberaj, with Ilir Rusmajli.
After it was made known in the media, Topalli said Biberaj had often abused his post by asking for trips to CoE countries. Thus Biberaj needed to pay for plane tickets he had used.
Following that row, this time among lawmakers of the governing Democratic Party, the controversy moved to Strasbourg, the CoE headquarters, where Biberaj also held a senior post.
Consequently the CoE decided to temporarily freeze Albania’s voting rights. However, members of the Albanian delegation from the governing Democratic Party denied government involvement, adding that the CoE had simply rotated Biberaj and replace him with Rusmajli.
Biberaj denied the charges, and slammed Topalli’s decision as illegal because he had been approved by parliament and could not be dismissed by her. He said that he would sue the speaker for slander.
The CoE assembly decided to launch a commission to investigate whether the speaker’s decision was in accordance with Albania’s parliamentary rules.
More than the decision and the surprise at the CoE, the recent row speaks of the frictions existing among politicians of the ruling Democrats and the release of this controversy just ahead of general elections on June 28.