EU and US diplomats in Tirana have warned Albania's parties that they are running out of time to withdraw candidates suspected of links to organized crime from standing in the June local elections.
Speaking to Top Channel TV, on Thursday, Romana Vlahutin, the EU ambassador in Tirana, said: “We are waiting. The political parties should act before 13 May, after that, we will say what we think,” Vlahutin said.
Speaking to students in Tirana on Thursday, Henry Jardine, Deputy Chief of Mission for the US embassy, said the issue was crucial. “You want clean candidates. When such issues are exposed then we have a much healthier settings,” he said.
US ambassador Donald Lu on 28 April said he had detected the names of a number of people with possible criminal records among the candidates. But since then, none of the political parties had withdrawn any of the candidates.
“We are having discussions about this. The international community and we as ambassadors are not a law-enforcing agency,” Vlahutin said. “We have to see this also in the light of the presumption of innocence, if there are indications that some persons have been involved in criminal activities but there has not been actual sentences.
"We must be balanced. Our main message to the political leaders is this: 'Be prudent with the lists, in order to have the right candidates!'”
Albanians are vote to elect 61 mayors and about 1,500 councilors in the June 21st local elections, in the first electoral showdown since the 2013 general election landslide victory of Edi Rama's Socialist-led coalition.
Although the campaign has not yet officially started, several incidents had occurred, including a flying chair at a rally that injured a senior citizen in the southern town of Kolonja.
Par: Gjergj Erebara
Source: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/eu-and-us-threatens-to-expose-su...
