About 600 state employees have lost their jobs as a result of the implementation of the decriminalization law in 2015.
Following an agreement in late 2014, the three largest parties in the country – SP, PD, and LSI – agreed to draft a decriminalization law in order to prevent the candidacy and appointment of persons with a criminal record in parliament, municipality, or public administration.
By law, every candidate is required to declare on a form whether or not he or she has had a final sentence at home or abroad. If there are convictions for serious crimes or electoral crimes, the candidate is not allowed to run. This also happens when he has been sentenced to over 2 years in prison or over 6 months when the crime was committed intentionally.
If the candidate does not declare the data correctly or honestly, he is dismissed from the post he holds.
According to a study by the Institute for Political Studies supported by the Dutch embassy, most of the people affected by decriminalization are public administration employees.
281 employees were fired or resigned from the public administration and 195 from the central government administration. 35 municipal council members have been fired and 21 have resigned as a result of decriminalization.
In terms of Mayors, three have lost their post. The first was the mayor of Kavaja, Elvis Roshi, who lost his mandate in 2016 for concealing a sentence and an investigation for drug trafficking in Italy.
Following the 2019 local elections, two elected SP mayors, Agim Kajmaku of Vora and Valdrin Pjetri of Shkodra, lost their mandates after hiding their sentences in EU countries.
Decriminalization has also led to the removal of MPs from the Assembly, which is the reason why it was created as a law in the first place.
During 5 years, 7 deputies left, Mark Frroku, Arben Ndoka, and Armando Prenga resigned from their mandates after the denunciations of the opposition for involvement in criminal activities abroad.
Whereas, Shkëlqim Selami, Gledjon Rehovica, Dashamir Tahiri, and Aqif Rakipi were dismissed from the post of deputy after the CEC decided that they had hidden sentences in the self-declaration form.
