Freedom House 2018 raport: Albanian President seen as symbol of corruption

Freedom House 2018 raport: Albanian President seen as symbol of corruption

 The Freedom House organization published today the annual "Countries in Transition" report, pointing out that Albania is in the category of countries with a transition democracy or hybrid regime, although it has marked a slight increase in overall scores, thanks to the recent elections held in a quiet atmosphere.

Relating to the June 25th parliamentary elections, a part of which was published by Voice of America, states that has been made progress as they provided broad guarantees for the opposition. Thanks to this improvement, the overall score of the democracy index was upgraded to 4.11 from 4.14 a year earlier.

The boycott of parliament by the DP during the first four months of 2017 curbed the electoral code reform that was recommended by the OSCE / ODIHR.

"The May-May agreement between the SP and the DP that an end to the boycott, though pavied the way for peaceful elections, strained the electoral system, as political logic was imposed on the electoral code," the report said.

The boycott of parliament by the opposition also damaged justice reform, as PD did not submit its three candidacies to the parliamentary commission responsible for selecting members of bodies that would have the responsibility to control the images of judges and prosecutors.

Freedom House says that in 2017 there was some progress against corruption and bribery, especially in the police ranks, as well as in the fight against drugs, which was observed in reducing the cannabis cultivation. But the progress in the decline in cannabis cultivation, the report said, was fading by reports by Italian agencies of Order that the former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri is related with an Albanian-American drug trafficking network.

The report says that the cannabis cultivation fell drastically in Albania, partly thanks to the intervention of the Albanian police.

The report says that the achievements in the fight against corruption faded out becsudr of the election as president of Ilir Meta, "seen by many citizens as a symbol of corruption", as well as by "choosing with a simple majority in the Albanian Parliament of the Albanian Prosecutor on December 18, which undermined seriously the credibility and independence of the institution," the report said.

In response to media interest, the spokesman of President Ilir Meta, Tedi Blushi, reacted to this report.

"Regret for abusing this Freedom House report in view of unilateral political agendas in our country. President Meta's election has been conducted in a completely constitutional and democratic process with a majority over 3/5 of the vote and in a key moment for the country's stability and resolution of the pre-election political crisis. Strongly and unilaterally this report not only deforms these truths, but speculatively and deliberately seeks to create artificial focus," says Tedi Blushi.

He further states that "if Freedom House is really interested in shedding light on corruption in Albania, should impartially investigate who influenced and commissioned these deformities of facts and truths in this report and then we are convinced that will discover the concrete symbols of national and international corruption. For this purpose we are open to cooperate with Freedom House."
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