“This government has neither the will nor the capacity to make free and fair elections. A caretaker cabinet is the only way to do so”, Lulzim Basha told US Ambassador Donald Lu and his predecessor Alexander Arvizu in the meeting they had today in the Democrat chairman’s office.

Arvizu, a former US Ambassador to Albania, met Basha in the quality of Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

Basha and his US guests talked about the current political situation in the country, in a time when the Department of State and Europol have reported Albania as the main producer and deliverer of marijuana in Europe and a key hub of the organized crime for heroin traffic and money laundering.

The opposition leader underlined that the reports of the US administration and EU confirm the criminalization of the country and the government’s connection to crime.

Basha said the dramatic situation is a direct consequence of deliberate acts of Premier Edi Rama, who chose ex-convicts and persons with a criminal past, mainly in the drug international traffic, to be elected Members of the Parliament, Mayors or appointed in high government posts.

“Because of its government’s connection to crime, Rama undermined the process of decriminalization, ideated the cannabisation of the country, did not fight crime and has declined to cooperate with the law enforcing authorities of the partner countries. This is why the government and the Prime Minister have neither the will nor the capacity to guarantee free and fair elections. He is concerned only in staying in office by any means”, Basha said.