The Albanian Parliament adopted the Socialist Party (PS) resolution condemning the cancellation of June 30 local elections by President Ilir Meta.
The resolution got the votes of 100 MPs out of 110 present. The parliamentary opposition joined ranks with the governing majority against the President’s decision. Only 7 MPs voted against the resolution, 2 abstained and 1 did not vote.
The resolution drafted by the PS condemn the presidential decree cancelling June 30 the local elections, called on the Central Electoral Commission to ignore it and continue with preparation for elections on the same date, warned the President not to take any further action related to election date, and called on him to “reflect”.
This resolution will have no practical effect regarding the procedure to dismiss the president, which is not clear whether the majority will attempt to start or not.
Prime Minister Edi Rama held a long speech in Parliament, in which he expressed majority’s firm stance to hold the local elections on June 30.
Rama repeated the same arguments included in the resolution, calling the president’s decision “unconstitutional”.
The President cannot take away the people’s right to vote, and he has no right whatsoever, zero, to decide on anything at all in this regard. Zero!
The Prime Minister blamed the opposition for forcing his Socialist Party participate in one-party elections.
After the main opposition fled the parliament and elections, we can’t provide a full pluralistic diversity in elections. The result of this election will be an almost 100 per cent purple (PS color) map.
Political totalitarianism was not our plan, it was theirs. We are just victims of our opponents’ choice to abandon the race.
We (PS) are compelled to bear this cost in order for it not to fall on Albania.
The June 30 election without them [the opposition] is the lesser evil for Albania.
Rama assured everyone that he had no intention to resign from his post. He refrained from threatening the President with dismissal, as other PS leaders have done, but instead called on him to read the resolution carefully.
