Ilir Meta

After winning an unprecedented third mandate to govern Albania, Edi Rama's Socialist Party has turned its attention to its only rival who currently has a senior institutional position, President Ilir Meta.

Edi Rama wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that his party has won the parliamentary elections and called on his supporters and "whoever wants to join us celebrate the victory" to attend a celebration in the evening in Tirana's central square despite concerns about the spreading of the coronavirus.

Tensions rose in the run-up to the weekend's polls in Albania when a young man was shot in his knee inside the electoral office of the opposition Democratic Party in the central Albania town of Kavaja late on Monday.

Judge Adrian Dvorani. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

"Judge Dvorani developed mechanisms to reduce political and criminal influence in the justice system, steps that contributed to the EU's decision in March to open negotiations for Albania's accession," the State Department said in a statement.

Albania PM Edi Rama voting in the village of Surel near Tirana in the 2017 elections. Photo: LSA

President Ilir Meta, who has called the changes unconstitutional, asked the Venice Commission for an opinion on the matter last October.

At a meeting with Ilir Meta in Tirana, Rumen Radev voiced our country's expectation that a quick progress will be achieved in enforcing the rights of the Bulgarian national minority

Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama speaking in parliament on 30 January. Photo: Malton Dibra/LSA

The head of the Socialist parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, said the vote would be postponed while the Council of Venice, the advisory body to the Council of Europe, carried out an express evaluation.

Pressure is growing on the Albanian government over its "anti-defamation" laws, after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, CoE, said it had asked its advisory body, the Venice Commission, for its opinion.

Albanian President Ilir Meta speaking to the media in Tirana on 20 December 2019. Photo: Malton Dibra/LSA

The new laws "could place the Albania on the brink of authoritarianism and endanger its [EU] integration and the very existence of democracy in the country," Meta wrote in the explanatory note accompanying his decree.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama (left) and the now resigned Mayor of Shkodra Valdrin Pjetri, during the Socialist Party election campaign. Photo: Facebook