TIRANA, Aug. 3 – The ruling Socialist Party has accused the country’s president of unilaterally setting Sept. 11 as the election date for the municipality of Dibra, northern Albania, whose Socialist mayor was dismissed earlier this year under a government decision following a sex scandal and recently lost a legal battle with the country’s Constitutional Court.
The Socialists claim President Bujar Nishani’s decree on the Dibra municipality election date issued on August 2, only one day after the Constitutional Court left in place last May’s government decision to dismiss Dibra Mayor Shukri Xhelili, is illegal as the full court decision has not been made available yet and published on the Official Gazette where it becomes effective.
Socialist Party MP Blerina Gjylameti warned President Nishani to cancel his decree which she said runs counter to procedures envisaged by the country’s Constitution and the Electoral Code “so that he could escape undesired legal consequences.”
“The electoral process should be held in a climate of trust for all parties involved, leaving it up to citizens to decide on their representation, but above all by implementing the electoral legislation requirements on setting the election date and organizing elections,” Gjylameti told a press conference on Wednesday.
The Electoral Code requires the country’s president to issue an election date for partial local government elections 48 hours after a court decision on the premature termination of a mayor’s mandate. New elections are called between 30 to 45 days from a court decision in case the government decision has been appealed.
Reacting to the Socialist Party’s claims, the President’s Office said the ruling party’s statement was “not serious and deformed legal definitions.”
The President’s office said it had been officially informed by the Constitutional Court of its August 1 decision and as a result the Sept. 11 election date meets the legal deadline determined by the Electoral Code.
The Court decision left in place the Council of Minister decision which has already been published on the Official Gazette, said the president’s office in a statement.
The Socialist Party’s reaction is a new clash with President Bujar Nishani whose five-year mandate expires in July 2017, soon after the new general elections. However, the new president is expected to be elected by this Parliament from the ruling majority ranks.
The ruling Socialists have often publicly criticized President Nishani, a former senior politician of the current opposition Democrats of vetoing its legal initiatives and blocking appointments in key diplomatic posts. The President has also complained of the government trying to strip him of some of his powers including those related to the military, where the head of state also serves as commander in chief, according the constitution.
Earlier this week, a Supreme Court decision turned down a request by Shukri Xhelili to change his remand in custody and set him free.
Shukri Xhelili, 56, was arrested last May on abuse of power charges following a video showing him asking sexual favors from a 20-year old woman in return for a job position.
The mayor, representing the ruling Socialist Party, was immediately dismissed by the government after a sex scandal video was aired on Ora News TV.
The video showed Xhelili asking sexual favors from a 20-year old woman in his office in the Peshkopia municipality building and then taking her in his car to a hotel in Tirana where the young woman managed to escape just as he was undressing.
Another Socialist Party Mayor, Elvis Roshi of the municipality of Kavaja, was arrested last June and is currently under house arrest after being charged with failing to reveal his criminal past in the questionnaire submitted to authorities in the framework of the implementation of lustration law.
The new Dibra municipality in northern Albania includes the regions of Peshkopi, Burrel and Bulqize. One of the country’s poorest regions, the Dibra Municipality has a resident population of 62,000 people who mainly rely on agriculture and mining.
A territorial and administrative reform in 2014 cut the country’s local government units to 61 municipalities, down from a previous 373 municipalities and communes.
