Constitutional Court hearing on Veliaj/What the parties stated

2025-10-31 10:54:00, Aktualitet CNA

Today, at the session at the Constitutional Court where Veliaj's appeal is being reviewed, the President's legal representatives, Veliaj's lawyers, and representatives of the Council of Ministers presented their requests.

The President's representatives requested the Constitutional Court's incompetence in the matter.

Representatives of the Presidency: We have requested that the issue of competence to repeal Decree No. 350, dated 01.10.2025, be reconsidered, and that you declare incompetence at the beginning of the session because you cannot review an administrative act such as this decree. The elections in Tirana were prevented, Constitutionality must be restored and incompetence for the review of the decree declared. Since incompetence for the review of the requests related to the decree was not declared and you did not release us from the status of a party in this process, which would be a fair and legally correct decision for this preliminary request. We present the request once again formally before you now to cancel the decision to include Decree No. 350 in this review as a step that should precede the review of the case on the merits.

Our arguments in support of this request are as follows: The meeting of judges of the Constitutional Court decided on October 9 to accept for review the request of the dismissed mayor of Tirana Municipality for the repeal of VKM no. 539, dated 25.09.2025, the repeal of the decree of the President of the Republic and the suspension of the legal effects of the latter. The decision to proceed to review the request for the repeal of the decree is based only on the documentation served by the applicant, which lacks the documentary practice of the president for the decree, the lack of the practice of the Council of Ministers for VKM makes your decision-making unsupported and biased. Documentary practice is of fundamental importance because through it the official position of the two state bodies involved in the process can be clarified. It is proven that the meeting of judges decided to proceed for review without reviewing the acts and without giving the president and the Council of Ministers the opportunity to explain their legal position.

As for the presidential decree, the issue of competence constitutes the establishment of the review by taking the decision in the absence and ignoring the arguments of the president. The Constitutional Court has deprived the president of the right to be heard and to defend his interests before this court. This situation directly violates the principle of due process of law, therefore you should annul the decision to include the decree in the subject matter of this review. We request that you allow us to present the arguments on the lack of legitimacy of the applicant to appeal to the Constitutional Court against the decree and to decide on this request before you open the session for the review.

Veliaj's lawyers stated that the Constitutional Court is competent for the matter.

Veliaj's lawyers: We stand by the submissions we have submitted regarding the competences of the Constitutional Court. We believe that the Constitutional Court is competent to review our request. Even for the President's act. For us, the process is divided into two phases. The first phase is the proposal and decision-making phase that ends with the Council of Ministers' Decision, and then the next phase is that of the constitutional guarantee that is automatically activated with the submission of the constitutional request, in which no institution should interfere, including the President, who must wait for a decision from the Constitutional Court. The premature activation of the President with the act setting the election date activates the legal effects of the decision of the Council of Ministers, the effects of which are suspended, for this reason we believe that the Constitutional Court is competent.

Representatives of the Council of Ministers said that the President's decree is legal.

Council of Ministers: The Council of Ministers has submitted its written position, in the conditions that the act under review is legal and the presidential decree is a consequence of this act. We request from the Court the acceptance of the request of the interested object, the President./ CNA