New draft law takes away President’s competencies, shortens deadlines
Related Articles
As forewarned the Socialist majority has drafted a new law to regulate the work of the institution of the President by limiting significantly the deadlines by which the President has to confirm appointments as well as putting limits to his competencies about setting electoral dates and other items.
As per the new draft law articles, the President will have only 7 days to confirm ministerial appointments otherwise the parliament takes over. Also if the President fails to confirm judicial appointments in time the swear-in procedure will be undertaken at the Judicial Appointments Council.
The articles also stipulate that should the President propose to change election dates he will have to present a written detailed argument for it and make every effort to coordinate with the majority party in power.
Another controversial issue is the power of the President to grant the requests for Albanian citizenship. The draft law requires the citizenship granting decrees to be countersigned by the Minister of Interior Affairs.
The majority representatives have declared that the new law will regulate the work and prevent crisis and conflict situations between institutions as those observed in the last years however some experts believe that the new draft is an attempt to straitjacket the office of the President.
President Ilir Meta said he was indifferent to this new draft law which he described as another 'coup d’etat' element that according to him shall be refuted by popular vote on the next general elections.
