TIRANA, April 19 – Five Lezha Municipality Council members officially resigned from their respective parties to join the Socialist Party (SP) on Wednesday, following the trend of seven other public office holders before them.
The majority of councilors belonged to the Socialist Movement of Integration (SMI), while two others were members of the G-99 and the small Albanian Future Party respectively.
“We join the SP in two of its major reforms: the judicial reform and the country’s integration,” one of the councilors told local media.
Head of the SP in Lezha Eduard Ndreca, on the other hand, said these officials’ will is to participate and comply with the government’s reforms.
During the 2015 elections, Lezha’s Municipality Council was deeply polarized, with 40 of its councils belonging to more than 20 political parties.
Currently, after the councilors’ internal moves, the SP has ten members, the Democratic Party seven, while the SMI and the Albania’s Time Party four each.
These relocations of party members follows a tradition of similar actions in the past in Fier, Vlore, Gjirokaster, Elbasan, Skrapar and Kurbin. With local elections a mere year away, analysts have said the most common method for local MPs and counselors to ensure seats is by changing loyalties with the governing SP.
