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Demonstration in the square, Rama accused of misusing the administration and violating the Electoral Code

Politiko 2025-02-20 18:08:00

Dozens of Tirana Municipality Cleaning-Greening employees and municipal transport vehicles worked for hours to line up around 7,000 chairs in a part of Skanderbeg Square, where Prime Minister Edi Rama is said to have summoned the municipal administration to a demonstration.

The reasons for the organization have not been announced by either the Municipality of Tirana or the Prime Minister's Office, but this manifestation is called ten days after the arrest of Mayor Erion Veliaj on charges of corruption and money laundering.

Meanwhile, civil society organizations that monitor the elections and the behavior of political parties in the campaign accused the majority of violating the Electoral Code. The organization "Civic Stability" also requested the Election Commissioner, Ilirjan Celibashi, on Thursday to ban the Prime Minister's activities with Tirana municipality employees.

"In the circumstances where the activity cited above, according to the data we have so far, although presented as an activity of a public nature, organized by the Prime Minister and taking place during the four-month period provided for by the Electoral Code, has not been reported to the CEC, it de facto constitutes an electoral violation. Under these circumstances, the Civic Resistance has made an official request to the CEC not to allow the organization of this meeting, which is an open abuse of the administration," the request states.

Rigels Xhemollari from the Civic Center told BIRN that in communication with the CEC, it was learned that the activity was presented as a cultural activity, but added that the parties were again in violation because in this case, too, the CEC should have been notified five days before the event.

When questioned by BIRN, the Prime Minister's Office and the Municipality of Tirana did not respond to requests for comment until the publication of this article, nor did they clarify the purpose of the activity.

The Deputy Chairman of the Tirana Municipal Council, Dorjan Teliti, in a reaction on social networks, described the activity as an attempt by the prime minister to illegally usurp the role of mayor.

"The Prime Minister who has seized all power, now decides to declare himself mayor, turning the state completely into private property," wrote Teliti, calling Rama's gathering with the municipal administration a "coup".

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha accused Rama of holding an anti-rally on the day the bust of dictator Enver Hoxha was toppled. Berisha threatened the participants that they were committing an electoral crime. “I will register you name by name. Participating in that rally constitutes a crime, an electoral and state crime,” Berisha wrote. Reorter.al