TIRANA, Aug. 1 – Albanian President Ilir Meta said on Thursday during a press conference that no one should expect the Constitutional Court legitimizing the June 30 local elections once it becomes functional, with the presidential decrees being in place.
“No one should have the illusion that any Constitutional Court decision can give legitimacy to June 30 elections when it becomes operational, as the President’s decrees are in force,” Meta said, offering his solution to a deadlock he predicts will get worse.
Meta has emphasized that October 13, decreed by him as the date of local elections after canceling his first decree setting June 30 as the official date, is inevitable.
“In my mind there is only one date, October 18, because others have decided on it, what we have decided together is for Albania to become like the rest of Europe. It is not as Hahn stated that 80 percent of Albanians support this, but 100 percent of Albanians do. It’s another day of proving that integration is a matter of standards, not desires. I insist on avoiding the escalation of this ongoing crisis, clarifying that there were no local elections on June 30. Legitimate elections are on October 13,” Meta said.
He further added this is not just a local deadlock, but a constitutional one, which he has tried to solve but which also needs the involvement of the majority and the opposition and their dialogue.
According to the president, “October 13 is constitutionally and legally unavoidable, an obligation to be enforced by the CEC that should have long since begun to implement the president’s decree.”
