The parliamentary committee of inquiry on the April 25 elections, established at the request of the Democratic Party (PD), held its first regular meeting on Friday.
The committee had convened on three separate occasions over the past two weeks, with the Socialist majority walking out of every meeting.
On Friday, members of both parties agreed to the committee’s rules of procedure and elected Klevis Xhoxhi, a Socialist MP, as its secretary.
As its first order of business, chair of the committee Enkelejd Alibeaj presented twenty-one requests for information addressed to Prime Minister Edi Rama, several ministries, as well as state agencies.
The requests concern questions of citizen privacy, information on the number of people employed in public administration and their salaries, as well as the number of Albanians who live abroad and have the right to vote.
The committee was established upon a request by the opposition two weeks ago. It has 3 months to investigate the possible illicit engagement of central and local public administration in the April 25 general elections.
It will specifically investigate a government order, issued shortly before elections, demanding Albanian emigrants arriving in Albania to quarantine, thus making it impossible for them to vote.
It will also look into the government’s awarding of economic assistance right before elections, allegedly amounting to €2.5 million; the alleged hiring of 13 thousand people during the electoral campaign, paid with public money; and the leak of personal data of 910 thousand Albanian voters.
The opposition maintains that the government of Edi Rama, who won a third term in office, embarked on a “electoral massacre” during the electoral campaign and on election day.
