TIRANA, Aug. 30 – In an interview for the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Albanian President Ilir Meta said once more that June 30 local elections were anti-constitutional and illegal, and that only the currently dysfunctional Constitutional Court could cancel out his decree to postpone them for October 13.
“The June elections were neither constitutional, legal, or legitimate; only the Constitutional Court can challenge the President’s decree. It is unfortunate that to date the activity of the court has been suspended at Rama’s will. To understand the irregularity of these elections, it is enough to think of the fact that in all 61 municipalities where the elections were held, the Socialists won because they had no opponent, as under the communist regime,” Meta said.
He added that if he hadn’t postponed the local elections date by decree on October 13 – not a random date, as it precedes the European Union’s decision date regarding Albania and North Macedonia’s opening of accession negotiations – a clash between the country’s two opposing political sides would have been inevitable.
“Let me tell you more: not only the Prime Minister’s party has elected all mayors, but also all members of city councils, including the city of Tirana. The turnout was announced after more than twenty days and was officially 23 percent, but was actually lower,” Meta told the newspaper.
He also spoke about the German weekly BILD newspaper, which a few weeks before the June 30 elections published a series of wiretaps for Socialist Party politicians, police officials and elements of organized crime, indicating that many deals were the result of an exchange of votes, revealing a worrying corruption system.
“I believe that our membership in the European Union is needed, although the progress made to date is not very encouraging. What concerns me the most is the high rate of youth emigration – it is necessary to create future prospects for young people who decide to leave Albania. Tens of thousands of people leave our country every year, and if we continue to do so, we will face depopulation that resembles that of the 1990s, after the fall of communism,” Meta concluded.
