In addition to the Constitutional Court candidate, Zhaklina Peto, who returned to the Justice Appointments Council for reconsideration following a ruling by the Tirana Administrative Court of Appeal, filed a lawsuit seeking the annulment of the KED ruling with seven other candidates from the list of 25 people who were banned from racing. The decision to disqualify from the race or to stop running was largely due to property problems.
The head of the National Council of People with Disabilities, Sinan Tafaj, is one of eight candidates who have decided to challenge the KED’s decisions, asking the Administrative Court of Appeal to overturn them and allow them to continue their race to the Constitutional.
The KED’s decision reflects that Tafaj lacks legal justification documentation to justify the legal sources of property of three lenders from whom he has lent about 60,000 euros, out of 20,000 each.
The KED also finds that it has not complied with the law on income taxation obligations, although the blind are exempted from paying the taxes and fees set by the law. The KED also found that Tafaj did not submit probationary documentation related to the Spanish state receiving € 354 per month, with independent living status for nearly 10 years.
For the candidate Dede Kasneci who seeks to return to the race, the KED finds that he has not exercised for at least 15 years the professional activity of those provided as a condition of allowing him to run for the Constitutional Court.
Petrit Kaja and Gezim Allaraj are the other two candidates for the Constitutional Court who have challenged the KED over decisions to ban the race after it was found that there was a lack of legal justification for the assets.
The other two candidates who applied to the Administrative Appeal are Kristaq Traja and Vasil Bendo who were stopped by the KED from continuing the race after it was found that they had not submitted the completed asset declarations to the ILDKPKI within 15 days.
Against the decision of the KED to terminate the race is also the judge of the Durrës Judicial District Court, Rexhep Bekteshi, who was confirmed in office by the Independent Qualification Commission on April 26, 2019. But the KED has found that Judge Bekteshi appears to have were investigating in a file for a defendant on charges of Agitation and Hostile Propaganda against the State in 1990.
The KED finds that in the decision of the Information Authority on Former State Security Documents no. 291, date 09.05.2019, brings to the attention the finding that candidate Rexhep Bekteshi was the investigator of this case in 1990 and that the criminal offense under investigation is considered a political crime.
According to the KED, the circumstances of this case for this candidate constitute a motive to assess the non-fulfillment of the legal requirement regarding the integrity of a judge in the Constitutional Court.
The Justice Appointments Council decided to ban the nomination of 25 applicants to the Constitutional Court, including Zaklina Petos and the seven aforementioned candidates, who competed for vacancies in the court. According to the decision, Peto was barred from running because she failed to successfully undergo the procedure of checking and verifying her and her family’s assets.
But Peto filed a lawsuit against the KED,on August 9 and August 22, and a panel compounded of Alkelina Gazidede, Amarildo Laçi and Bari Shyti decided to partially accept her lawsuit.
The enacting clause of the published ruling indicates that the Administrative Court of Appeal overturned two decisions of the Justice Appointments Council, which barred Petos from running for a full term and an early vacancy, positions that were announced by the President of the Republic on 17 February 2018.
Similar to Peto, 7 other candidates banned by the KED, mostly for not justifying their property, have sued the Council’s decisions and are seeking to return to the race.
