The historic leader of the Albanian Democrats Sali Berisha said US Ambassador Yuri Kim cannot decide the chair of the Democratic Party. Berisha, who referred to Kim as “the governor”, was speaking to media reporters after a meeting of the Commission for the Refoundation of the Democratic Party, commenting Kim’s tweet for a meeting with Enkelejd Alibeaj. The Ambassador referred to Alibeja as the “acting chair”, ignoring the ruling of Tirana’s Court that recognized the Commission for the Refoundation as the sole leading authority of the party, following the decision of the Democrat National Assembly of December 11.

“The Democratic Party chairman was dismissed on December 11 with 4446 votes of the delegates and 44,000 votes of the party members on December 18”, Berisha said. “Except the Democratic Party’s members with their free votes, no one, whoever they might be, neither the Governor nor Rama the Zeus have the authority to appoint the chair of the Democratic Party”.

“This is a blatant violation of the Vienna Conventions. Never can the chair and the leadership of a party be decided by anyone other than its membership!”

Berisha also spoke about the candidatures for the new President of the Republic as incumbent Ilir Meta’s term expires in July.

“The Democratic Party, as a real opposition, does not accept any proposal from Edi Rama. If he decides that the president should be proposed by the opposition, then we’ll start consulting and will take a decision”.