The Socialist Party (PS) of Albania will start procedures to remove President Ilir Meta from office following his decision on Saturday to cancel the local election of June 30.
In a statement on behalf of the Socialist Party following a meeting of the party leadership, Minister for Parliament Relations Elisa Spiropali stated that the PS will seek the removal of President Meta because he violated the Constitution by annulling the election date.
“Meta has lost the right to be in that position and parliament will start dismissal procedures. An exhaustive debate will be held on Thursday where all the arguments on Meta’s violation of the Republic and how he has invented an institution that does not exist in any constitution, called ‘undecreeing’.”
After the debate in the parliament, Mrs. Spiropali said it will be up to the Electoral College and the Central Electoral Commission to examine whether the president has violated the constitution or not.
“In the end, it will be up to the Constitutional Court, but that does not deprive us of starting the procedures for his dismissal,” Spiropali stated.
According to Article 90 of the Constitution, the President may be dismissed for serious violations of the Constitution and for committing a serious crime. The proposal for his dismissal must be made by a minimum of a quarter of the MPs and should be supported by no less than 93 MPs. Subsequently, the parliament’s decision is sent to the Constitutional Court, which could rule on the dismissal of the president, once the court finds him responsible of such violations.
At present, the Constitutional Court has only one member, out of the nine in total, and it is dysfunctional.
Today, Prime Minister Edi Rama is expected to meet the ambassadors of several EU member countries to discuss the issue.
The chances to fire President Meta in a way that is accordance with the Constitution currently seem very small, as it has been argued earlier on Exit. Furthermore, this is not the first time that an Albanian president has cancelled and postponed elections.
