Territorial reform: DP says the municipalities being abolished must be heard, there can be no one-sided reform; Manja: The draft law will be examined on 5 October

The Committee on Legal Affairs and Public Administration held its meeting this Friday, 2 October, at which the findings of the public consultation on the draft law ‘On the administrative-territorial division of local government units in the Republic of Albania’ were presented. The meeting was accompanied by debate between the majority and the opposition, with Democratic MPs opposing the way the public consultation was conducted and demanding that representatives of the municipalities directly affected by the proposed changes also be heard in the process. Democratic MP Jorida Tabaku said the opposition’s findings from consultations with citizens and local actors differ from those presented under the majority’s initiative. She stressed that other developments had also emerged during the process, relating to decisions of municipal councils and requests by mayors.

“During the consultation on the reform in the committee, we have other findings. In all the consultations we have held with colleagues, citizens have opposed the reform. In no variant is it the variant proposed by the DP with 100 municipalities, but the variant of the SP with 46. There can be no one-sided territorial reform,” Tabaku said.

The chairman of the Laws Committee, Ulsi Manja, explained that the meeting’s agenda was the presentation of the findings of the public consultation held for the draft law submitted by 10 Socialist Party MPs.

“The agenda before us is the presentation of the findings of the public consultation in support of the initiative submitted by our SP colleagues. This public consultation is in support of this draft law, just as your initiative has been forwarded by the Assembly to be consulted with the municipalities of Albania. Today I have invited Mr Mazniku, on behalf of the initiators, to present to us the findings that have arrived, to file those documents and to distribute them so that at the meeting of 5 October, which is the discussion in principle, approval in principle, article by article and as a whole of the draft law. On the 8th it is voted on. It is put to the vote,” Manja said.

The debate then focused on the positions of municipal councils and the communities affected by the reform. Democratic MP Oerd Bylykbashi criticised the fact that, according to him, representatives of the municipalities due to be abolished had not been invited to the meeting. He demanded that the process be interrupted and that the mayors be summoned to the Committee.

“I see there municipalities that are not affected by the changes, they stay as they are, while here you should have invited the representatives of all the municipalities that are being abolished. They should have been here and, if this is a presentation of findings, knowing that those municipal councils have held votes and have voted against, they should have been here. Stop the process, summon the mayors to be here. If you think you increase the volume of consultation by taking positive decisions from municipalities that are not touched in the slightest and that are supposedly in favour of abolishing 15 other municipalities, this is a disgrace,” the Democratic MP said.

Bylykbashi also demanded that the other legislative initiative on territorial division be examined. The Democratic MP also referred to a draft law submitted by the opposition in 2022, accusing the majority of having left it unexamined for three years.

“First request: the meeting is interrupted and we await the position regarding the other legislative initiative. We cannot pre-empt an initiative by closing it with a vote in a plenary session. The initiative arrived at the same time. In 2022 we submitted a draft law on territorial-administrative division. For three years you kept it in a drawer, a procedure that makes no sense, which you yourselves approved. A legislative initiative does not move a millimetre. Whereas this time, as soon as the government brought it with the signatures of 10 MPs, the Secretary General rushed it for consultation, while it is contrary to the law,” he said.

Bylykbashi also demanded that local authorities and experts be included in the process, arguing that territorial changes must be consulted with the communities directly affected.

“Another request: we have two initiatives, it is a controversial process. The Constitution obliges that the division be done in consultation with the community. They are protesting. Since we have two legislative initiatives, let both go to the congress or the local authorities, or let its experts come here and give an opinion on this. Do you think that with e-Albania you solved the elected government? No, it cannot be replaced,” he said.