The former socialist mayor of Saranda denounces the Socialist Party: They don't allow me to run as an independent candidate

The former chairman of SP Saranda, Gjergj Merkuri, who is trying to run independently for this Municipality in the local elections of May 14, has denounced the efforts of the SP branch to block him.

Merkur has submitted to KZAZ of Saranda the list of the initiator committee and the appropriate signatures for registration as an independent candidate, but apparently he is encountering difficulties in his final registration.

He described the attempt of the SP as a criminal and unprecedented act.

Merkur has also stated that each person involved has a first and last name and will be criminally charged.

In a reaction on Facebook, he writes:

With a criminal and unprecedented act, the Socialist Party is stopping my candidacy as an independent in the May 14 local elections. At the headquarters of the Socialist Party in Saranda, the citizens who have signed my entry into the race are being called and pressure is being put on them to withdraw their signatures. Citizens are being threatened with their jobs, with fines in their businesses and with any kind of form through the state machinery just to declare that they have not signed the forms submitted to KZAZ.

The initiative committee which is working with me is gathering the necessary evidence to report these thugs who are seriously violating the Electoral Code to SPAK.

The prosecution should immediately seize the cameras around the building of the Socialist Party in Sarandë and bring to justice the people who take citizens hostage with threats and blackmail them.

After they failed with threats to KZAZ to stop my registration, they have now moved to plan B by illegally taking the lists of people who signed and threatening them to withdraw.

Every person involved is named and will be charged criminally.

I call on the Central Election Commission, the presence of OSCE-ODHIR in Albania, the embassy of the European Union and the embassy of the United States to stop this criminal act.

The integrity of the elections in the municipality of Sarandë and the right of citizens to choose and be elected to public positions are being seriously violated.

All this engagement of these thugs is done with the sole purpose of stopping my candidacy, due to the great support that the citizens have expressed immediately after the publication of the candidacy. Currently, at these moments we have facts that pressure is being exerted on people who have signed and they are my supporters. They are being threatened in different forms.