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An undated video showing the mayor of the town of Elbasan warning journalists they will be fired if they pose difficult questions has put a fresh spotlight on the plight of the media in Albania.

“You often forget that you have a job and that with your mouth and your camera, you are damaging the interests of your owners,” Sejdini warns his interlocutors in the video.

The prosecutor’s office has demanded the removal of 2,800 names from the electoral roll in Durres after an investigation revealed that the mayor had added thousands of non-resident voters to the list, based on falsified on rent contracts with a company owned by the municipality.

The opposition Democratic Party filed a complaint with the CEC, which in turn asked the prosecutor’s office to investigate accusations of fraud.  

Majority in Albania is seeing the opposition’s proposal for a decriminalization pact, as pure electoral propaganda ahead of the June 21 elections.

In the recent days,  Democratic Party has proposed to the majority to sign a pact between political parties in order to verify the candidates that race for the June 21 elections in the framework of decriminalization and the removal of those candidates with criminal records.

Albania's Central Election Commission has rejected proposals from the bipartisan Media Monitoring Board to fine seven news television stations for offering unequal amounts of coverage to political parties campaigning for the local elections on June 21.

The Commission ruled by four to three against the proposed fines on Monday in a vote aparently determined by the political affiliations of the board members.

The main political parties in Albania officially started electoral campaigns on Saturday for the next local elections, but the first days of the campaign were marred by claims of irregularities.

On Saturday, Zef Hila, the opposition Democratic Party candidate for the municipality of Vau i Dejes, alleged that he was subjected to harassment by police officers.

“I have denounced this violence from uniformed police officers for weeks, but this is still going on,” Hila said in a statement published by the Democratic Party.

President of Albania launched a strong appeal today for voters asking them not to sell their vote on June 21.

Bujar Nishani addressed the nation (photo) about the 21 June 2015 local government elections.

At the focus of his message was the call not to sell the vote. “Do not sell your vote! It has no price. Selling your vote is a disgrace which will tarnish you all. The candidate that buys your vote, does not respect you, he only lies you, despises you and hates you”, Mr. Nishani says.

Leader of the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity (PDIU), the party that defends the rights of the Tcham community, has been voted today by the left wing majority as the new deputy speaker of Parliament.

Immediately after this, the other deputy speaker of Parliament, Vangjel Dule announced his resignation from this post.

These consecutive developments came a few weeks after PDIU decided for the first time in many years, to join the left wing and leave the right wing majority.

Leader of Albanian opposition, Lulzim Basha received today the chairman of the Subcommittee for Europe, Eurasia and New Threats in the American Congress, Dana Rohranbacher and the chief of staff of the community Paul Behrends (photo).

In the meeting, the images of which IBNA brings to you in the video below, were present the head of the Republican Party, Fatmir Mediu and US ambassador, Donald Lu.

3,3 million Albanians eligible to vote will be called in the 21 June 2015 polls. Out of them, 1,2 million are outside of Albania, living abroad for many years.

Meanwhile, in the remaining part of 2 million voters, 312 thousand voters do not have a permanent living address.

One of the main criteria of participation in the voting process is for an Albanian citizen eligible to vote to have a home address, in order to determine his constituency.

But authorities have identified at least 312 thousand people without a home address.