TIRANA, June 3 /ATA/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday received Chief of the General Staff Major General Bajram Begaj, the presidential candidate proposed by the ruling Socialist Party earlier on the day after failing to choose a consensus candidate with the opposition.
During the meeting with the presidential candidate, currently serving as the country’s chief defence, Prime Minister Edi Rama said noted that “the current system doesn’t allow for a process for the potential candidates to be revealed earlier, and therefore a discussion took place within the Socialist Party today, and picked you among so many candidacies as the right candidate required to normalize and re-civilize the institution of the President of the Republic.”
“I would like to thank you for not refusing, but accepting the nomination and we will be honored to vote for you and elect you as the President of the Republic,” Rama went on saying.
On his part, Begaj said “it is a great honour to serve as the President of the country,” underlining “I will always try to be the right person for what the post represents and serve in this post with a strong sense of responsibility.”
“I have been holding important positions within the army and in the field of medicine, two very good and dedicated professions. I would be very much happy to serve in the post of the country’s president, if Parliament backs my candidacy,” Begaj said.
Parliament is expected to hold the fourth round of voting for the new president of the country on Saturday. In the fourth and fifth round, a simple majority of 71 votes are sufficient to elect the new head of the state as opposed to 84 votes during the first three rounds.
If elected tomorrow, he will be Albania’s seventh President following the fall of communism.
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