Albania's Parties Feud Over New Chief Prosecutor

The five-year mandate of the General Prosecutor in Albania is ending without any agreement on a successor, which is expected to add to the existing tensions between ruling and opposition parties.

Adriatik Llalla assumed his five-year post on December 7, 2012 after serving as head of the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets.

Normally, his replacement would have been agreed without much lost time. Now, however, the gap is occurring while Albania is still midway in a radical judicial reform process, which foresees the formation of new bodies and new ways of electing heads of the judicial system.

Under the new legislation adopted by parliament, the new General Prosecutor will have a seven-year term and will be appointed by the High Prosecutorial Council.

As this new body is not yet formed, the law foresees his immediate replacement with a provisional figure named by parliament.

Prime Minister Edi Rama took to social networks on Wednesday to urge the opposition to agree on a new temporary General Prosecutor, saying it would send a positive image about Albania as it awaits the opening of accession talks with the EU in the first half of 2018.

"We are on the verge of a meeting with history ... we have to choose whether we are going to let this chance go, or work together to gain the challenge of opening [membership] talks," Rama wrote.

Parliament's law committee on Thursday meanwhile began the procedure of electing a new Prosecutor.

But the main opposition Democratic Party said the procedure went against the constitution and the law.

It insists that, from a legal point of view, a new provisional General Prosecutor cannot be elected for the moment.

"Until the High Prosecutorial Council is...