Several mayors from municipalities currently held by the opposition have announced that they do not recognize the outcome of the June 30 elections and will not vacate their offices in August for the incoming mayors of the PS.
The Socialist Party won 60 out of 61 municipalities during the June 30 local elections, as the opposition boycotted them.
Mayor Voltana Ademi of Shkodra, who has been charged by the prosecution for obstructing the elections, declared:
My acts of resistance also after June 30 are legal and are an implementation of the law. Who would take it upon themselves that in the city of Shkodra, faced with that great mass of people, to allow crime to usurp the state.
Also Miranda Rira, the mayor of Prrenjas, announced on Facebook that she would refuse to leave office:
For anyone to head the municipality of Prrenjas, they should earn it. To enter in a real competition, with real and not imaginary competitors! Just like I came to this municipality, through a tough and real competition, not through one-party elections. […]
We’ll see each other on October 13 together, the date decreed by the President of the Republic! Until then, many developments await us!
In an interview, Kamza mayor Xhelal Mziu stated:
I believe that also [the US and EU] have seen the electoral farce. It’s enough to look at the OSCE-ODIHR report. For the first time the Council of Europe didn’t monitor the elections. […] I or my colleagues are not glued to our seats. We implement the law. Only the law sends me back, not political decisions which are in violation of the law.
According to the Electoral Code, the mandates of the current mayors and municipal councils ends on August 10. President Ilir Meta has decreed local elections for October 13.
