A mayor in detention, a government decision to dismiss, a presidential decree for early elections, and a Constitutional Court decision that returns full powers to the mayor in detention.
The Constitutional Court's decision, taken on November 3, ended the institutional deadlock by deciding to return powers to the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj. With this decision, the elections announced for Tirana on November 9 will not take place and Veliaj will remain in office until the end of his mandate.
The clash tested the functioning of the rule of law
Mayor Erion Veliaj has been in detention since February of this year, while the process of his dismissal created a clash between the highest institutions of the state. Lawyer Jordan Daci, associate professor, describes the case as an unusual precedent in the country's constitutional history, a case for which the intervention of the Constitutional Court became necessary to correct wrongdoing by several institutions at once.
"The biggest constitutional challenge was caused by the carelessness of the President of the Republic and then by the decision-making of the Council of Ministers," Daci tells DW. "If the Court had not suspended the implementation of the decision, Albania would have faced complete constitutional failure."
Unusual precedent
The case also constitutes an unusual precedent because, for the first time, a person in detention participated in such a case before the Constitutional Court. It was also the first time that Article 62 of the Law on Local Self-Government was applied, which provides for the dismissal of a mayor who is absent for three consecutive months. However, according to Daci, this article “was interpreted incorrectly and in violation of the Constitution”, which in Article 115 clearly stipulates that dismissal can only be made for “serious violations of the Constitution or the law”.
The Constitutional Court assessed that the physical absence of the mayor, if it is not the result of his will, cannot be considered a reason for dismissal. “Regardless of what the law on local self-government provides, nothing constitutes a serious violation if it is not qualified as such by the Constitution itself” – explains Daci. “Either the law should be declared unconstitutional, or it should be interpreted in accordance with the Constitution, as the Court did” – he adds.
Consequences on the administration of the Municipality
Tirana Municipality, home to about a third of Albania’s population and the focus of most public services, is the country’s largest local unit. For months, it has been run in the absence of its mayor by four new deputy mayors, appointed on July 31 after the resignation of the previous team. The appointments were made official as part of a “refreshment of local leadership” called for by Prime Minister Edi Rama, at a time when Erion Veliaj was in detention.
According to lawyer Jordan Daci, this way of functioning was unconstitutional because "the vice-president can only be elected by the president, not on the basis of delegation." "This is a non-delegable competence," the lawyer explains to DW. The Constitutional Court's decision, which returns full powers to Veliaj, according to Daci, puts an end to a prolonged period of uncertainty in its direction.
Erion Veliaj was arrested on February 10, 2025 by the Special Prosecution Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime, on charges of corruption, money laundering and concealment of assets./DW
