President Nishani returns the territorial reform
22/08/2014
 
Nishani returns the territorial reform As expected, the Albanian President, Bujar Nishani, did not approve the territorial reform. The President returned it for a review in Parliament and gave three arguments.

The first argument says that the Parliament did not consult the local unit leaders, saying that this has been verified by the letters received from them.

“I come to this conclusion after a widely discussed analyze with local government leaders, with whom we share the same opinion that this law was not transparent”, Nishani declared.

The second argument is decentralization. This was a condition set by the DP to become part of the reform, and the president mentions it in another way:

“The lower the number of local units, the bigger they become and the more are damaged the power decentralization principles, which are sanctioned by Article 13 fo the Albanian Constitution”, Nishani says.

In the third argument, the President says that the territorial reform was preceded by the amends of two other laws, such as the law for the organization and functionality of the local government. But the President sees as even more important reforming the electoral law, which has not been mentioned by the political factor.

The president says that the territorial reform should have been made together with the Electoral Code amends, which is is imperative, according to Nishani, before the local elections