In a press release published yesterday, the Central Election Commission has refused to remove the mandate of former PS deputy Armando Prenga. According to he KQZ statement,
The General Prosecution is asked additional information in relation to the results of the verification of Armando Prenga, deputy of the Parliament of Albania, County of Lezha .
The KQZ failed to specify what type of “additional information” is required from the Prosecution.
The General Prosecution had requested Prenga’s dismissal, after he failed to mention on his self-declaration form that he had been convicted in Italy for theft, falsification of documents, and presenting a fake identity during 1996–1997. Moreover, Prenga has been convicted by the by the Court of Kurbin for falsifying documents, which he also failed to declare on the form.
Meanwhile, the General Proseuction launched a criminal lawsuit against the KQZ for failing to communicate Prenga’s answer regarding his criminal past on the self-declaration form, which in itself is a violation of the decriminalization law.
The removal of Prenga’s mandate is a particularly thorny issue for the Socialist Party (PS), to which Prenga used to belong before he was forced to leave the party after a shooting incident involving an illegal firearm. Nevertheless, Prenga has been consistently voting with the PS in Parliament. Because the PS has “exhausted” its list of candidates for Lezha county owing to a series of replacements and forfeitures, Prenga will be replaced by a deputy from the LSI, upsetting the balance within the ruling coalition government.
