The impeachment process of the President of the Republic at the request of the Albanian Assembly that is taking place in the Constitutional Court, is an event not only unprecedented in the 30-year history of Albanian democracy, but it is also a rare precedent for relations between institutions and balance between powers in the country.  As such, in terms of importance and specificity, it should be an excellent process, with a pharmaceutical procedure, where everything had to be spotless, so as not to further degrade public confidence in the functioning of the system.

 

But, in fact, quite the opposite is happening.  Even if his mandate is terminated and if Ilir Meta continues to remain in office until the end of July, this process has stalled and become dirty.  Not in one segment, but in almost all its stages.

 

Let's take a look at them.

 

The Parlament that voted to impeach the president in June 2021 was incomplete. It was missing almost 20 MPs as a result of the boycott of opposition parties two years ago.  But the controversial constitutionality of this truncated assembly is further undermined by its legitimacy, given that some of the MPs (104) who formed the quorum of the qualified majority were not directly elected by the voters.  They were SP puppets.  So the 2017 voters had not delegated to Rama and the SP a sufficient mandate to impeach the head of state.

 

 But the farce does not end here.  The parliament that voted for the dismissal, already halved, was a body with an expired mandate.  The April 25 elections had produced new MPs, and from a moral point of view, those still holding seats in parliament had no right to make major decisions.

 

In addition to these moral aspects, there are also legal holes.  The law clearly states that commissions of inquiry cannot produce results and have effects in the last four months of parliament's existence.  But this commission overcame this dam, when it presented to the MPs for voting its conclusions for the termination of the mandate of the head of state.  Under the anxiety of the time, it did this, denying Ilir Meta the legitimate right to be heard before the commission, even as evidenced in recent facts by scandalously falsifying the date of submission of the material to the hearing.

 

But the farce that exposes a ruined state does not end here.  In terms of legitimacy it is not only the assembly but also the Constitutional Court. This high body that has to make this important decision, which sets a weighty precedent, is not complete.  It has only 7 members out of 9 provided by law (and which have not yet been filled as a result of the holes caused by justice reform).  But even out of these seven, 3 judges have expired mandates.  Even the Chair of the Court, Vitore Tusha has been replaced for almost five years.  According to the constitutional decisions of the Dvorani case, the continuation of a mandate due to not leaving the vacant position, can not be endless.  This is exactly what made the Court not accept the expulsion of one of its members who was in a conflict of interest with the head of state.

 

Therefore, these most obvious and spicy aspects are enough to understand that one of the biggest issues of balance of power has remained in the hands of a parliament and a truncated Constitutional Court with dubious legitimacy.  Therefore, without dealing at all with the content of the accusations, it is easy to understand what the final decision will be, it will be neither serious nor convincing for the public.

 

Source: Lapsi.al