Albanian Opposition abandons CEC
17/04/2013

After the resignation of the vice Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Denar Biba, another member proposed by the Socialist Party has also resigned.

Albana Shtylla states on her resignation note that the by removing one of the other members, the Parliament has damaged the independence of the CEC. The same motivation was used by Biba in his note.

Shtylla was voted by the Parliament as a CEC member proposed by the Socialist Party, and now the opposition has no representation in this institution. Three members left the CEC within two days, one who was removed by the Parliament and two others resigned.

After this situation, the Parliament Speaker, Jozefina Topalli, asked the Socialist Parliamentary Group leader, Gramoz Ruci, to bring within 48 hours the candidacies that will replace the resigned members.

Sources from the Socialist Party declared that they will not submit any new candidacies, since CEC lost it legitimacy with the violent removal of Ilirian Muho.

This position was announced earlier the day by the Socialist leader, Edi Rama, after meeting with the representative of the State Department, Jonathan Moore, saying that we are not talking about replacing people, but returning the legitimacy of CEC.