Tirana | 27 January 2009 | Efforts by Tirana to dismiss an Albanian deputy in the assembly of the Council of Europe, CoE, have temporarily frozen Albania’s voting rights and created a political storm at home.
Albania’s parliament speaker, Jozefina Topalli, asked the CoE in a letter to replace Aleksander Biberaj, currently the deputy head of the CoE assembly, with former justice minister Ilir Rusmajli. Topalli justified her decision saying that Biberaj, a member of Prime Minister’s Sali Berisha Democratic Party, had sought compensation for unnecessary travel expenses.
Biberaj denied the charges, and slammed Topalli’s decision as illegal because he had been voted by parliament and could not be dismissed by her. He said that he would sue the speaker for slander
While two envoys travelled to Strasbourg on Sunday for the same seat, the CoE assembly decided to launch a commission to investigate if the speaker’s decision was in accordance with Albania’s parliamentary rules.
According to the one member of the delegation, the assembly in the meantime has frozen the country’s voting rights.
Albania’s opposition Socialists accused the speaker and Berisha of staining the country’s reputation through their decision to dismiss Biberaj.
“The decision of the CoE to freeze Albania’s voting rights is a stain, the price that Albania has to pay for the communist mentality of Prime Minister Sali Berisha,” said Socialist spokesperson Mimi Kodheli.
“Berisha and Topalli showed us one more time that they are the leaders that we don’t deserve, and do not need,” Kodheli added.
Former Prime Minister Ilir Meta, the head of the Socialist Movement for Integration, underlined that the decision to dismiss Bibereaj should have passed through the Albanian parliament.
“No one should offend the personality of this country and its relationship to international organizations,” said Meta. “I don’t understand that all parliamentary procedures can be ignored in this manner, damaging Albania’s image in the world.”
The speaker’s decision came also under fire by MPs of Berisha’s own Democratic Party.
“Topalli has breached twice her competences and duties as parliamentary speaker, first she does not pay his expenses at a time when he was fulfilling his CoE duties, and second in the procedures of his replacement,” said deputy Besnik Mustafaj.
“ I express my concern because the dignity of an MP has been infringed up, as has parliamentary ethic, because he has not been notified directly of the dismissal.”
(Reporting by Besar Likmeta) Source: Balkaninsight
i cannot believe that the socialist party can say anything about sali berisha and his style of leadership. he might be stupid but is innocent unlike those thieving socialists who never ever have actually done anything good for this country. criminials like ilir meta and co should be banned from the political spectrum and i hope this view will be supported by the great albanian people and not vote any of his party members in the general elections.
thankyou
Sali Ahmet Rrustem Berisha wants to replace this Catholic with his Islamic friend. This is the end of the Catholic community in Albania. They should uprise and defeat this Salih Ahmet Rrustem Berisha. He is playing these two catholics against each-other.
Albanian Catholics must wake up and rise against Berisha! We would support them. The Christian Democarts should speak out against this action. Where the hell are they?????
I am a Brit. That initself is sad state of affairs. But I was privileged to live and work in Albania for 8 years from 1997 -2005. Mostly in the Elbaan area.
Albania is a land of wonderful people, but it’s version of democracy still needs some attention. Mind you, we Brits can’t say much in this field, as we have a totally undemocratic government, that in many ways makes the Albanian government look good.
Sali Berisah is the biggest problem to Albania’s transition to a fully fledged democracy. The Socialists may not have been angels, but compared to Berisah they were not too bad. Everyone knows Fatos Nano was a crook. But he did move the country forward to some extent. Berisha was and is a fool. His actions in parliament were usually histerically funny. Since his election he has not done much to help the country.
There is n doubt that the sooner he goes and a government devoid of former communicts comes to power, Albania will always have political problems.
Personally, I long to see Edi Rama as PM. Now that would be interesting.
Good luck Albania.
To be honest as mostly albanians are ,the Sali Berisha’s cabinet is a failure of our inspirations for a free and developed country. I personally as many albanians in and abroad have seen the informal politicians how they talk and promise .But we must change the government with demonstrations which is not very cultural .French people are the ones that when they dont like a politician’s rule of law ,make a change demanding strongly .No need to get close to the violence but demand precisely and freely without hesitation a change for themselfs .There are albanian politicians that want to reach out the borders of our voices ,give them a chance to prove themselfs they are worth for Albania and albanians .Change must take place and investments not by greek and serbians but other countries to finish the projects which are payed by albanians and EU eager for competition and desire to work close with the albanian people .