Government of Albania

Protesters faced off police in a dozen towns across Albania on Wednesday, as opposition-run municipalities demanded that the Central Election Commission, CEC, vacate municipal properties planned for use as polling stations in hotly disputed local elections, which the opposition is boycotting.

Bajram Curri. Photo: Wikimedia/Albinfo

Opposition supporters attacked and destroyed election material in the town of Bajram Curri, in north Albania on Tuesday, ahead of a hotly disputed local election due on June 30, which the opposition is boycotting and the President has tried to call off.

The Avdyli brothers shown in an archive photo collage.

The prosecution said it had opened an investigation into a breach of state secrets. The government has not yet commented on the case.

The rift between Albania's ruling Socialist Party and President Ilir Meta widened on Sunday after Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Meta of acting as the head of the opposition - after he urged the government to cancel a project to demolish homes to make way for a new stretch of road in the capital. 

Albania's opposition Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, have finalised their preparations for a major protest on Saturday in Tirana, demanding the resignation of the Interior Minister Fatmir Xhafaj, who they accuse of engaging in drug smuggling.

Four officials of the Municipality of Dibra in northern Albania were sent to hospital on Wednesday after suffering injuries at the hand of officials from their junior political allies in the PDIU, police reported.

The meeting between the government of Kosovo and government of Albania is expected to bring a number of positive developments for businesses from both countries.

This was said on Monday following a meeting between Kosovo’s Minister of Industry, Bajram Hasani with the deputy Prime Minister of Albania, Senida Mesi.

The head of the secret service in Albania, SHISH, Visho Ajazi Lika, has resigned from his position to which he was appointed in August 2012.

The news emerged on Monday after Prime Minister Edi Rama's office said Rama had named SHISH vice director Helidon Bendo to President Ilir Meta as Ajazi's successor.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced Albania's new government Sunday. For the next four years, 13 ministers will aid him in running the country after his Socialist Party, PS, won an overwhelming majority in the June 25 elections.

The Albanian parliament failed to elect a new president on Wednesday after Prime Minister Edi Rama's governing Socialists decided not to offer a candidate in the first round of voting.