LSI

Albania's Central Electoral Commission, the body tasked with taking final decisions on whether to dismiss elected officials with a criminal past, is to decide in the first week of 2017 on whether two MPs and a mayor will be banned from public office.

Two Albanian MPs, one from the ruling bloc and one from the opposition, have disputed the the Prosecutor General's claim that they must be dismissed from office for hiding past criminal records.

Albanian environmentalists are threatening to call a referendum on a controversial draft law on waste imports that MPs adopted on Thursday. The draft now has to go to the President before passing into law.

It is not the first time that green activists in Albania have mustered supporters for a referendum on this hot issue. 

Prime Minister Edi Rama and Lulzim Basha, leader of the opposition Democratic Party [PD], failed to find an agreement for judicial reform after three hours of negotiations on Monday evening.

The LSI, the junior party in Albania's Socialist-led government, has hired a US firm to improve its image in Washington.

Global Security and Innovative Strategies LLC, GSIS, is being taken on for a monthly retainer of $30,000.

Albania's Minister of Justice resigned suddenly on Monday, in the middle of presiding over key judicial reforms that the EU considers vital for the country.

Nasip Naco, from the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, a coalition party in the Socialist-led government, resigned after two years in office on Monday.

Albanian media have published leaked photos and tape allegedly featuring a former energy minister in intimate positions with a woman, in what his supporters say is retaliation for his role in uncovering corruption.

Online portals in Albania have published pictures of the former Economy and Energy minister Dritan Prifti, and they say that a full video will be released soon.

Four officials and five owners and employees of pharmacies accused of stealing 56 million leks (400,000 euro) have been arrested in recent days as the Albanian government faces its biggest corruption scandal since it came to power 18 months ago.

Two similar cases involving suspected fraud of several million euros are also currently under investigation.

Parties in Albania condemned a man who threw a chair amid a crowd attending a Democratic Party rally in Kolonja, in southeast Albania on Wednesday, injuring a 63-year-old.

The chairman of the Democratic Party and current Mayor of Tirana, Lulzim Basha, was also at the rally where the local candidate for mayor was being presented.

Launching his campaign to become the next mayor of the capital, Bojaxhi challenged Albania's two big political parties, the Socialist and Democrats, arguing that they had little to offer the city.

"We have no security in Tirana, are without air and are without clean, unclogged streets," the former minister said.