In anticipation of the President Ilir Meta’s decree, which was signed this morning, to cancel the June 30 local elections, Prime Minister Edi Rama stated yesterday during an electoral campaign event in Burrel that President Meta “had lost the right to remain in that office.”
It is expected that the Socialist Party will try to remove President Meta from office, most probably formulating an argument based on Constitution art. 90(2), because of “serious violation of the Constitution.”
However, in order to fire the President, the Socialist Party will need to assemble 2/3 of the votes in Parliament, or 93 votes. According to the most recent voting records, the PS has 75 votes in Parliament.
Of the “new opposition,” only 8 MPs have consistently voted with the Socialist majority: Lala Rama, Xhina Elena (PDIU); Tom Doshi (PSD); Vasil Sterjovski (former LSI); Gjetan Gjetani (former PS); Ervis Meço, Krenar Rryçi, Nikolin Staka (former PD).
It is unlikely that Prime Minister Rama will be able to rally 10 additional votes to fire President Meta, and even if he did, the final verdict would be given by the Constitutional Court, which is dysfunctional. And even if it were to magically become functional within the coming month, 3 of its new members would be chosen by the President.
In other words, the chances to fire President Meta in a way that is accordance with the Constitution currently seem very small.
