Prime Ministers of Albania

Less than two months after his party lost the general elections on 25 April for the third time to the Socialist Party, Lulzim Basha won internal leadership elections, confirming his grip on the party for the next four years.

US President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, June 2, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/Samuel Corum/POOL

Albanian MPs on Wednesday voted to oust the country's president, Ilir Meta, though the final decision on the issue must go to the Constitutional Court, which will conclude if Meta will be removed from office before his term ends in until 2022.

Some 104 lawmakers in the ruling Socialist-dominated chamber voted for dismissal while seven voted against. Three abstained.

The Socialists vowed to bring down Meta the moment they secured victory in a parliamentary election on April 25, without even waiting for the new MPs to take their seats in September.

They accuse Meta, a former Socialist prime minister who quit the party 17 years ago, of inciting violence and fomenting political instability with his statements before and during the election.

The AMA recommended sanctions against several outlets, but the Commissioner decided to fine only RTSH for breaking the 'electoral silence' on the eve of the vote.

Experts were incredulous, while one AMA board member, Sami Neza, said he was "astonished".

"We have proposed more administrative sanctions, but they have not been taken into account," Neza said.

The video was a crude example of a 'deep fake', a video that portrays someone saying something they didn't. And it was not the only political attack ad run by Untold Stories of Albania and targeting Basha and other opposition leaders before the April 25 vote that was won by the ruling Socialist of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

"With this designation, I am reaffirming the need for accountability and transparency in Albania's democratic institutions, government processes, and the actions of Albanian public officials," Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in the press release.

Albania's parliament on Monday announced vacancies for four positions on the board of the country's Audio-visual Media Authority, AMA, without waiting for the new parliament elected in the April 25 elections to give its view, prompting concerns about the creation of a one-sided board supportive of Edi Rama's ruling Socialists.

After the news that the US has barred former Democratic Party leader and Albanian President and PM Sali Berisha, experts told BIRN that his opposition centre-right party might benefit from this decision in the long run.

Former Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha. Photo: LSA

Berisha is the fourth Albanian to be added to the list of people unwelcome in the US after former General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla, former Socialist Party mayor Vangjush Dako and the current Social Democratic Party head, Tom Doshi.