TIRANA, June 28 – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Friday the dismissal of the Mayor of Vau i Dejà«s Zef Hila, former Democratic Party representative, following violent events on Thursday in Bushat, where a group of protesters threw molotov bombs inside the Commission of Electoral Administration Zone at the Bushat Agricultural High School, burning ballot papers.
“Zef Hila will not just be dismissed, but will also be penally prosecuted for the barbarian act of burning the school and burning election materials! Whoever follows his example will have the same fate and will face justice,” Rama wrote in a Twitter post, which was accompanied by a photo of the dismissal decision previously warned by Minister of Interior Sander Lleshaj.
Concerning Friday’s events at Vau i Dejes, where three policemen were also wounded, the opposition’s Democratic Party stated that its people were not involved, talking about a “criminal case of Edi Rama to incriminate the opposition and identify it with the violence it planned itself.”
Lleshaj, on the other hand, said the fire, the destruction of burning materials and the violence towards police came from “an attack group” mainly consisting of municipality workers belonging to a party that has lost all reason and its cause.
For its part, the police announced the arrest of at least 14 people allegedly involved in the attack on the premises where the Commission was located. Among the arrested were the Deputy Mayor of Vau i Dejà«s, as well as some employees of this institution. Meanwhile, both Hila’s son and brother are among the people declared wanted by the police.
Hila himself, questioned by the Voice of America, said “I was not present at the last night’s protest near the Bushat CEAZ” and that “I distance myself from any act of violence. The protest last night,” he added “was organized by the Civic Alliance for Democracy and the Democratic Party branch.”
Nonetheless, the DP’s headquarters in Tirana reiterated today its “firm stance that none of its militants stand behind the burning of the CEAZ in Vau i Dejà«s.”
Democratic Secretary-General Gazmend Bardhi said that “Edi Rama is trying to divide the citizens and put us against each other. He has a dangerous scenario of violence and civil clash for Sunday, a scenario he wants to bill to the opposition’s Democratic Party.”
