Prime Minister Edi Rama has sent his dismissals and proposals for the four replacement ministers in his government to President Bujar Nishani. According to art. 98 of the Constitution, President Nishani will have 7 days to decree the dismissals and review the new candidate ministers.
After they have been decreed by the President, the Parliament has ten days to confirm them.
The most controversial of Prime Minister Rama’s proposals is no doubt Fatmir Xhafaj for Minister of Interior Affairs (or, as a major newspaper today published in a telling lapsus, Minister of Order).
Xhafaj’s official CV shows that between 1982 and 1986 he has been a “lawyer in the juridical system” during communist period. It should be pointed out that at that time, the profession of lawyer was prohibited, which leaves him with three possible options: judge, prosecutor, or investigator. According to the lustration law of 2008, all three functions would disqualify him from being eligible as minister (or even as deputy, for that matter). Furthermore, there is a remarkable gap in his CV between 1986 and 1999, in which it is officially unknown what his activities were.
It will be the task of the President, and Visho Ajazi, director of the intelligence service ShISh, to review the CVs and decriminalization forms of the candidate ministers, and see whether they are legally eligible for office. In the case of Xhafaj, it is their duty to uncover his precise position in the juridical system of the former communist dictatorship, his precise function in the party structure of the Party of Labor of Albania (PPSh), and apply the law of the Republic of Albania accordingly.
If the President fails to do so, it will be up to the Parliament to show that thorough vetting procedures do not only hold for the judicial branch, but for the executive as well.
