In Tirana, the President of the Constitutional Court, Holta Zaçaj, stated today that questioning the implementation of the decisions of this court is unimaginable in a legal state.
Mrs. Zaçaj made these comments while being asked by journalists about the still non-implementation of the court's decisions on the issue of the mandate of the socialist MP Olta Xhaçka, as well as on the Diaspora voting issue.
The Socialist Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Ermonela Felaj, told Voice of America today that “the Assembly has dealt extensively with the issue of the mandate of MP Xhaçka, even after the decision-making of the Constitutional Court.
Just as for the voting of the diaspora, also for the issue of the mandate of the socialist deputy Olta Xhaçka, the Constitutional Court has taken decisions for many months, but they have not yet been implemented by the Assembly.
The President of the Constitutional Court, Holta Zaçaj, declared today that the legislator did not think of any control mechanism for the non-implementation of the decisions of this Court, because they are enforceable.
President Zaçaj said in a press conference that the decisions of the Constitutional Court are final and that questions about their implementation cannot be imagined.
“Questioning the implementation of a decision of the Constitutional Court is unthinkable in a legal state. Decisions of the Constitutional Court are final, final and enforceable. There is no equivocation in the decisions of the Constitutional Court”, said Ms. Zaçaj
In the middle of June 2022, a group of opposition MPs asked the Assembly through a motion to start the procedures for establishing the invalidity and ending the mandate of the Socialist MP Olta Xhaçka, claiming her violation of Article 70 of the Constitution on the conflict of interest.
In November, the Assembly rejected the report of the minority in the council of regulation and mandates and immunities and approved the report of the socialist majority, acts that resulted in not sending this case to the Constitutional Court, as the body that ascertains incompatibility.
The opposition appealed to the Court, and in January 2023 it annulled both decisions as incompatible with the Constitution.
After that, the Assembly would have to restart the procedures from the beginning, which has not yet happened.
Asked today by the Voice of America about the procedure in the Assembly regarding the mandate of deputy Xhaçka, the deputy speaker of the Assembly, Ermonela Felaj, stated that “the Assembly has dealt extensively with this issue even after the decision-making of the Constitution, engaging the legislation council”. She added that its composition is inter-party, with the same representation (lawyers) and the opposition majority.
“The council also appointed the constitutional expert Krenar Loloçi for the questions that the members had about the correct reading and understanding of the decision. Parliamentary documents clearly reflect every discussion and they are freely accessible as well as the council's report on the matter in question”, said Mrs. Felaj for Voice of America.
The Constitutional Court has overturned the decisions of the Assembly for a year, which were intended to prevent the sending to that court of a motion to judge on the incompatibility and the end of the mandate of MP Xhaçka.
The opposition MPs, who moved the Constitutional Court, have been continuously asking for a year to convene the Regulation, Mandates and Immunities Council to review and implement the court's decision, but this issue has not yet returned to the legislators' desks. The Constitutional Court is, by the Constitution, the only authority that can evaluate the invalidity or not of the mandate of a deputy.
The mandate of the socialist MP Olta Xhaçka was questioned by the opposition, which claimed that she was in a conflict of interest, as her husband Artan Gaçi's company, with the status of a strategic investor in the construction of a luxury hotel in the south of the country, benefited the use of the coast near the object.
Both of them have rejected suspicions of conflict of interest through lawyers and personal statements.
In September, Prime Minister Edi Rama removed Mrs. Xhaçka from the position of Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
While in October, a part of Mr. Gaçi's property in Gjileke near Dhërmi, where a tourist complex is expected to be built, was placed under preventive seizure by SPAK, following suspicions that the land was privatized with forged documents.