The Bureau met to review appeals filed by the suspended opposition MPs and decided to prolong their ban from the original 30 days to nearly three months.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, main opposition DP lawmaker Flamur Noka said parliament had been “taken hostage” and no longer reflected the voters’ will.

“Parliament has been turned into a den of crime and drugs and is no longer an institution representing Albanian citizens,” Noka said. “Any opposition MP who speaks the truth and refers to facts and evidence about the criminalization of the state is declared an enemy.”

Noka said the extension of the suspensions breached parliament’s rules of procedure and the statute governing lawmakers.

He said the ban runs from December 23 to March 3, barring the lawmakers from entering parliament.

“Although our mandate comes from the citizens, Prime Minister Edi Rama wants to temporarily take it away from us,” Noka said.

He announced that the decision would be appealed in the administrative court.

Parliament’s Secretariat for Procedures, Voting and Ethics suspended the six Democratic Party lawmakers – Belind Këlliçi, Albana Vokshi, Klevis Balliu, Elda Hoti, Flamur Noka and Fidel Kreka – following disorder in parliament during the Dec. 18 session.

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“We will not recognize these elections,” Noka stated, accusing the ruling Socialist Party of election manipulation.

“When you draw such a conclusion, you should tell citizens that Rama (Prime Minister) and his narco-regime have just kept strongly installing since 2017 by financially strengthening his electoral machinery. Did Albania hold free elections?” Noka said.

“We will never surrender. It is a duty of the opposition to defend democracy, but it can’t do so alone,” Noka said.

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Addressing a meeting with migrant community in Brussels, the DP senior officials said that the upcoming May elections are the great opportunity for change.

He said that the diaspora was the hope for change and the hope for the country to return to normal path towards Europe.

According to Noka, the ruling Socialists have failed to deliver on their campaign pledges and therefore Albanian citizens had left the country in search for a better life.

“You still remember Edi Rama promising 300 000 new jobs back in 2013. Instead, 1.1 million Albanians left the country in search for better life in Brussels, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark Norway, Italy and elsewhere throughout Europe,” Noka claimed.

He said that upcoming parliamentary election is “the process that will decide between two eras; that of corruption and organized crime, and that of development and European integration.”

He urged migrants to vote for DP, saying the main opposition party has tabled best program ever proposed to Albanian voters.

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But, for the Democratic Party in opposition, the bill has been announced without being filed. Secretary-General of the Democratic Party Flamur Noka pointed at the fact that this bill is being prepared before the elections, while accusing the ruling majority of having imprisoned 38 thousand Albanians for “building a hen-house without a permit”.

“Were you the ones who told Albanians that the time of impunity has ended”, Noka asked.

“You imprisoned 38 thousand Albanians just for fixing a window, a ledge, or a hen-house. Were you the ones who imprisoned 38 thousand Albanians even for 5 thousand lekë of unpaid electricity bill? What about those families whose relatives have committed suicide because you jailed them? Now, you are telling Albanians that elections are coming that you have put on a sheep’s clothing. Why? It’s because you need the votes”, said Noka.

He concluded by saying that it has been the DP that has protected the public interest of the Albanians. We have told you that you have taken a reprisal against Albanians. What you have done goes beyond the limits of humanity and goes to genocide,” said Noka. /j.p/p.s./

There was a tense situation in “Shqiponja” square in Tirana, where the General Secretary and MP of the Democratic Party Flamur Noka and MP Albana Vokshi clashed with the police.

Protesters set fire to two garbage cans, as well as some tires. Police officers intervened to extinguish the fire.

“The act of civil disobedience is all peaceful,” said Noka.

There was tension in Elbasan, as well.

Protesters in Bradashesh, where Elbasan is connected with Tirana, clashed with the State Police officers.

The police asked the protestors to open the road to enable the movement of vehicles, while the opposition MPs who were leading the supporters asked against any provocation.

After the intervention of the police, the protesters moved towards the Bradashesh bridge, after staying for more than 2 hours at the Bradashesh roundabout.

Democrat MP Tomorr Alizoti called on the police not to interfere and not touch the protesters. “No one is afraid of prison anymore,” he said. /j.p/p.s./

Speaking to reporters at the DP headquarters after the violent protest, where Molotov cocktails and flares were thrown at main state institutions in the country, Noka said the state was now in panic and vowed that “the civil disobedience and the civic revolt won’t be stopped either by gas or by police.

The opposition official reiterated the appeal for a technocratic government as the “only alternative for social peace and free elections.”

“Meet the citizens’ demand for a technocratic caretaker government or no peace will be found. Today they realized that battle with the citizens cannot be won by using gas or violence. We will continue the civil disobedience until our demands are met,” Noka stated.

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Noka claimed that the main opposition party “resisted immense pressure in the last three years.”

“We are here today and we didn’t succumb, but we resisted the unprecedented pressure by Edi Rama and his regime in the past three years. We are stronger than ever,” Noka said in his remarks.

According to him, “Rama failed in his efforts to capture and influence the international media that are showing the true face of Rama and his narcoregime.”

“Sali Berisha and DP are the only ones to be credited for revealing the truth so that whole world can learn what this government really is,” he stated.

He also invited every disappointed Democrat to join the Democratic Party, saying “the door has been thrown open to everyone.”

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Balla stated that the Criminal Code clearly defines in articles 151 and 154 the criminal offenses of intentional destruction/damage of property by fire and other means, which are punishable by up to five years in prison.

“While these serious acts have been repeatedly referred to the Prosecutor’s Office, the prosecution institution must guarantee that the law applies equally to everyone and the MP can never evade the law, benefiting from or hiding behind immunity,” said Balla in his reaction./p.s./

Basha argued that the DP’s opponent if Rama regime therefore, the party, “cannot be held hostage by fabrications, slander and misinformation that divert us from our main task as the opposition, which is the fight against this regime,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the DP MP Edmond Spaho reacted to the dismissal of MP Flamur Noka from the Security Commission, considering it like an action similar to the communist dictatorship time.

Spaho reminded that similar actions took place in ’45 against opposition MPs during the communist regime.

“Let Basha begin with internments now. Assassinate the MPs like in 1945. But, he can’t be like Enver. Enver was historical figure, Enver’s shadow is just funny and miserable”, said Spaho.

Further on, the representative of the Group for DP Edit Harxhi reacted today regarding the recent expulsions in the DP, accusing the leader of the DP Lulzim Basha for making expulsions from the party without statute and without forums.

Harxhi emphasized that the “leader with Western education”, the incompetent leader has started the mission of expulsions from the party instead of protests for energy.

The Representative of the Democratic Initiative Fatbardh Kadilli reacted today regarding the dismissal of MP Flamur Noka from the Security Commission, considering it an event that shows degradation of DP.

DP MP Albana Voshi reacted to the situation created in the Democratic Party by declaring that freedom and internal democracy are oxygen, while dumbness, blind obedience and inclusion in the line are asphyxiation that leads the DP to death/p.s./

The reason for this decision, according to the announcement of the DP, is the transformation of the leadership meeting into a laboratory for the production of lies to tarnish the chairman and the Democratic Party, inventing unspoken and non-existent discussions or attitudes.

“The repeated slanders and fabrications damage the interest of the Democratic Party and the Democrats, defocusing the attention of the opposition battle to the only opponent who is the enemy of Albania and Albanians, Edi Rama,” the Democratic Party said in a statement.

DP MP Flamur Noka said today that, at the meeting of the parliamentary group leadership he had asked the DP chairman Lulzim Basha to take responsibility, because according to him, last night Basha humiliated the DP membership and electorate by calling it “riffraff “.

Also, Noka said that, “Sali Berisha’s rostrum is the only alternative to keep this force united and to save it from Basha’s collapse.” //a.i/