TIRANA, Nov. 2 – Albania’s government has replaced all of the country’s 12 prefects in an attempt to deepen the fight against organized crime and corruption, Prime Minister Edi Rama said.
In what has been called a “public relations stunt” on Albanian media, every single one of the new prefects is either a retired or reserve military officer, including the first woman colonel in Albania, who will serve as prefect of Tirana.
Rama said the prefects have been passive so far in these duties, but the new prefects will do more.
The government fired the 12 county prefects in an effort to give this institution more power in territorial control, the fight against crime, and good governance of community life, Rama said.
Prime Minister Rama declared after the government meeting that “the prefects have remained in the shadows for a long time and their role will be reshaped in the service of the fight against crime and corruption.”
Rama presented the 12 new prefects, almost all with a military education, at a press conference.
Prefects are government-appointed leaders to Albania’s regions. Unlike mayors, they are not locally elected and are meant to coordinate work between local and central governments.
Analysts said the choice was meant to show the new government’s approach to organized crime and corruption, human and narcotics trafficking to raise this fight against crime to a higher degree.
The opposition has been pressing the Socialist Party government over its alleged failures and ties to organized crime and narcotics traffickers.
Lulzim Basha, leader of the opposition Democratic Party called this initiative “a desperate attempt to turn somewhere else away from the big narcotics scandal”.
Basha said that Prime Minister Rama shares power with the mafia dome and the tendering oligarchs.
