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Motives revealed/Here's why the Democrats' request for a meeting of the Mandates Council for Balluk was rejected

2025-12-29 19:24:00, Politikë CNA

Motives revealed/Here's why the Democrats' request for a meeting of

The Albanian Parliament today shared the reasons for rejecting the Democrats' request to hold a meeting of the Mandates Council on the case of Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku, justifying why they made this decision.

Through an ad hoc announcement, the Assembly emphasizes that the meeting has been postponed for procedural reasons and the consideration of the matter remains open, while there is no procedural basis for calling another meeting with a predetermined agenda, as requested by the opposition representatives.

"In response to your request to convene a meeting of the Council on Rules of Procedure, Mandates and Immunity, I hereby inform you of the following: The meeting of the Council on Rules of Procedure, Mandates and Immunity to review the request of the Special Prosecution Office for authorization by the Assembly for the arrest/deprivation of liberty of the MP/Deputy Prime Minister has been convened and held on December 19, 2025, in accordance with Article 13 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly.

With the calling and holding of this meeting, the procedural competence to call the Council regarding this issue has been exhausted, as the issue has been placed on the agenda and has been open for consideration since 19.12.2025. According to Article 13, point 6, of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, setting the agenda of the meeting constitutes a competence of the President of the Assembly and is exercised in function of the procedural progress of the open issue.

As long as the meeting of December 19, 2025 has been postponed for procedural reasons and the consideration of the case remains open, there is no procedural basis for convening another meeting with a predetermined agenda, as requested. At the Council meeting of December 19, 2025, during the consideration of the case in question, it was found that there was no agreement among the members of the Council regarding the time limit that should be left to the defense party for the effective exercise of the right to familiarize themselves with the acts and evidence presented by the Special Prosecution Office.

The legal representative of Ms. Belinda Balluku, referring to the law, requested 3 weeks of time to prepare for legal defense in the framework of guaranteeing a due process of law, the discussions focused on setting a date for the next meeting of the Council, in order to hear the parties.

Opposition MPs requested a 3-day deadline, while majority MPs linked their request to

– the examination of the case by the Constitutional Court and

– the right of MP Ms. Belinda Balluku to receive the requested time through her legal representative Mr. Ardian Kalia.

Under these conditions, and in compliance with Article 42 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, as well as the principle of due process, the President of the Assembly announced the postponement of the meeting, without setting another immediate date.

Also, according to Article 118 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, the examination of the requests of the Prosecutor's Office for the granting of authorization by the Assembly for the arrest or deprivation of liberty of a deputy is carried out on the basis of a procedure that guarantees the right to defense and a full examination of the relevant documentation. As long as this process has not been concluded and the parties have not been provided with the necessary time to exercise this right, the procedural conditions for setting a new meeting date are not met.

Also, the Assembly of the Republic of Albania, as a representative of the sovereignty of the people, has the constitutional obligation to guarantee the implementation of the Constitution and the law, especially in cases where the Constitutional Court has been expressly asked to give a decision on an issue directly related to parliamentary consideration, as in the present case.

"In these circumstances, the request to convene a meeting of the Council is not accepted. The next meeting of the Council on Rules of Procedure, Mandates and Immunity will be convened when the procedural conditions provided for in the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly have been fully met," the announcement reads. /CNA