Prosecutor elected amid cloud of smoke
TIRANA, Albania — Albanian police clashed with opposition supporters who tried to force their way into parliament to disrupt a vote on the appointment of an interim prosecutor general on Monday.
Around 3,000 demonstrators, holding EU and U.S. flags and shouting anti-government slogans, gathered outside parliament to condemn the selection of a temporary prosecutor general which they say is unconstitutional.
Riot police pushed the protesters back after they broke through a first security cordon outside parliament. The demonstrators threw smoke bombs toward officers. Local media reported that several people have been injured.
Opposition lawmakers also threw smoke bombs inside parliament, but governing legislators managed to hold the vote and elect Arta Marku as acting chief prosecutor with 69 votes from the ruling Socialist party in the 140-seat parliament. Two lawmakers voted against the appointment and two others abstained, while the opposition boycotted the vote.
Marku’s brief swearing-in ceremony after the vote was held under a cloud of smoke.
“This is the beginning of the popular uprising,” main opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha said before ending the protest.
Following a meeting with opposition counterparts, Basha said that in the first weeks of January they would hold a big protest and other nationwide protests “while we take the proper political steps at the parliament too.”
Basha’s predecessor in the post, Sali Berisha, who is also an Albanian ex-president and prime minister, mentioned “extermination of the lawmakers’ mandates which means no lawmaker will be a lawmaker anymore.” He didn’t make clear, however, how that would that be done and what it will mean in practice.
An interim prosecutor general is supported by the European Union and the U.S., which have helped Albania draft judicial reforms. The reforms, needed for the country’s bid to launch EU membership negotiations, have already started but a permanent commission to appoint a prosecutor general hasn’t been created yet.
Judicial corruption has plagued post-communist Albania, hampering its democratic processes.