After six months on the run and in an international search related to the incinerator file, today, January 6, former deputy prime minister Arben Ahmetaj’s mandate as a deputy “burns”.
As the Constitution stipulates, Ahmetaj’s mandate as a member of parliament is immediately terminated after 6 months of absence from the Assembly, and another representative will join the socialists. After the year-end holidays, the Assembly will have to determine the invalidity of the mandate and notify the CEC of the vacancy, while the election institution will make the replacement according to the results of the 2021 elections in the district of Tirana, where Ahmetaj was elected deputy with 11,287. ranking in the top-5 list of the most voted SP in this district.
According to the ranking of the SP candidates for the Tirana region, the mandate of Ahmetaj will have to be taken by Dallandyshe Bici, who won 4977 votes from the preferential vote and was ranked 21st in the list of SP candidates for Tirana.
However, there are rumors that Bici, currently director of the State Cadastre Agency, is expected not to accept the mandate, so it will automatically pass to the lawyer Plarent Ndreca, who secured 4008 votes in Tirana in the 2021 elections. Arben Ahmatej is accused of corruption, money laundering and concealment of wealth, related to the incinerator scandal.
In international search after being accused by SPAK of corruption and concealment of the proceeds of the crime, Arben Ahmetaj, is stripped of his last duty, that of the deputy of the socialist party. His mandate is called completed because for 6 months in a row the former number two of the government was absent from the assembly for no reason. This provision in the constitution entitles Speaker of Parliament Lindita Nikolla, at the start of the parliament, to announce the end of the mandate and to inform the Central Election Commission about the replacement of Arben Ahmetaj.
According to the results of the 2021 parliamentary vote, Dalëndryshe Bici takes the mandate of deputy. It remains to be seen whether she will leave the post of head of the Cadastre after 11 months at the head of one of the most important institutions of property documents. Unofficially, the most rumored name to sit in the MP’s chair is the lawyer and member of the Tirana City Council, Plarent Ndreca. In terms of the number of votes received, he ranks after Dallandyshe Bici.
