TIRANA, July 18 – The Durrà«s court refused on Wednesday to certify the mandate of the Durrà«s mayor elected in the June 30 local elections.
Judge Mimoza Margjeka called the Socialist candidate’s mandate irregular, because of the Democratic Conviction’s illegal participation in the local elections.
By law, if the registration of the contestants is illegal, the elections are also illegal.
The decision is expected to be appealed to the Durres Court and will reopen discussions on the legitimacy of the June 30 elections. If this decision is confirmed by the Durrà«s Court of Appeals, it will effectively reject the elections in 22 municipalities, including Tirana, where the mayors of the recently-established DC have competed.
The Durrà«s court ruling has highlighted one of the key June 30 election scandals – an open violation of the law in regards to the registration of the opposition’s DC party.
The DC was allowed to register on the last legal deadline for all political parties, which was on April 23. This became a topic of controversy among the opposition’s resigned Democratic Party and allies, who claimed the DC as “fake opposition,” but also among media and political experts, who pointed out several irregularities in the DC’s registration.
Back in April, several local media pointed out how the Tirana Court took only five hours to register and legalize the freshly-founded party, although the legal procedure takes considerably longer.
The creation and operation of political parties are regulated by the Law on Political Parties, which sets out some conditions to be met and verified by the court before registering a party.
A request must be submitted to the Tirana Court for registration, which must be signed by at least three thousand individuals, founding members of the party; the adopted party statute; and the chairman of the party, who is its legal representative.
The documentation must be subject to judicial review, which, besides verifying the fulfillment of the above conditions, must also verify whether the statute and other party documents are in accordance with the Constitution and the Laws, within 30 days after the request is submitted.
Part of the examination should also be the verification of the existence and the signature of the 3,000 founding members. The law stipulates that for each founding member there should be shown name, surname, personal identification number and place of residence, for which it offers the court a month’s time.
In addition to these media reports, political experts in Albania independently criticized the development, calling the creation of this party “an attempt to create a fake opposition” which doesn’t help the government, mor the bring a solution to the country’s deadlock.
After the Durres Court, that of Tirana did not certify the mandate of the Mayor of the Socialist candidate Agim Kajmaku in the Municipality of Vora.
Tirana Judge Ariana Gunbardhi announced on Wednesday the lack of competence to make that decision and decided that the case should be handed over to the Tirana Administrative Court.
Agim Kajmaku, candidate of the Socialist Party, was the only one in the race for the Vora municipality.
