QEPARO, Albania (AP) — Preliminary results Monday showed Albania's governing Socialist Party candidate Vangjel Tavo won the mayoral election in the southwestern town of Himara after the previous mayor was removed in a case that has sparked tensions with Greece.
Results at the Central Election Commission showed Tavo won 58.62% of Sunday's votes, while 41.38% went to Petraq Gjikuria from the Together We Win 10-party coalition that includes the main opposition’s center-right Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the left-wing Freedom Party of former President Ilir Meta.
The early election was held in Himara, 220 kilometers (135 miles) southwest of the capital, Tirana, after the previous mayor, Fredis Beleris was stripped of his title, convicted and imprisoned on vote-buying charges. He and neighboring Greece have claimed his conviction was politically motivated. Albanian officials strongly reject those claims, citing the independence of the judiciary.
Beleris and the two mayoral candidates are members of the local ethnic Greek minority.
The case against Beleris has strained relations between Tirana and Athens, with Greece threatening to hold up Albania’s bid to join the European Union.
Sunday’s preliminary turnout tally was 37.61%, or more than 3% than last year, and the voting was held without any issues according to the CEC.
The Socialists currently dominate the Town Hall’s assembly.
The opposition complained that some 6,000 people were unable to vote due to expired identity cards. During the previous election, the commission allowed people with out-of-date IDs to vote upon the request of some political parties and a decision from the government. This year no such request was filed, according to CEC head Ilirjan Celibashi.
Former Interior Minister Taulant Balla said that despite his call on July 22 for a speedy two-day issuing of IDs, there was no response from Himara voters, especially those living in neighboring Greece.
The voting was held at the culmination of the tourist season with thousands of tourists in areas where the voting took place. Few were aware of the voting that was taking place.
Himara is populated with ethnic Greeks on what has been dubbed the Albanian Riviera, a coastal region with burgeoning tourist development that has been rife with property disputes.
In the aftermath of the fall of Albania’s communist regime in the early 1990s, property that had previously been seized by the state was distributed among residents. But this often led to disputes over ownership claims, and there have been allegations of ethnic bias in land distribution.
Beleris, 51, has claimed the case against him was an attempt by Socialist Party's Prime Minister Edi Rama to retain control of Himara and its potential for lucrative future property development
In June, Beleris was elected to the European Parliament with Greece’s governing conservative party, and was given a five-day leave from prison to attend the parliament’s opening session in Strasbourg.
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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, poses with Fredis Beleris before their meeting at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Monday July 15, 2024. Beleris, a jailed member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority — recently elected to the European Parliament with Greece’s governing conservative party — arrived in Athens Monday en route to Strasbourg, after being granted a five-day leave from prison to attend parliament’s opening session. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
FILE - Fredis Beleris listens to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during their meeting at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Monday, July 15, 2024. Albanians in the southwestern town of Himara are to vote Sunday for a new mayor after their previous choice, Fredis Beleris, a member of the country's ethnic Greek minority, was stripped of his title, convicted and imprisoned on vote-buying charges in what he and neighboring Greece have claimed was a politically motivated case. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)
Albania's governing Socialist Party wins mayoral poll in a town with ethnic Greek minority
Albania's governing Socialist Party wins mayoral poll in a town with ethnic Greek minority
PARIS (AP) — The curtain came down on Paris’ feel-good summer with a grand parade of French athletes on the Champs Elysées on Saturday after the country threw one last party to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Parade of Champions included 460 Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including 120 Paris medalists. About 70,000 spectators lined up on the parade’s route on the French capital’s famed avenue that ended on a ring-shaped stage around the Arc de Triomphe monument. Hundreds of the Games’ volunteers, Olympic and Paralympic representatives and city officials also attended.
Organizers delivered a celebration of French sport on par with the spectacular and audacious opening and closing of the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics and the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympic ceremonies.
“Among us, we call it the 5th ceremony,” Thierry Reboul, the director of ceremonies, told French media. “We tried to include the same elements to this show as we did to the four ceremonies this summer: surprise, emotion and sharing.”
President Emmanuel Macron and his new prime minister, Michel Barnier, also attended. During the ceremony, Macron decorated with state honors 120 French Olympians, who had medaled in Paris, including the star swimmer and judoka, Léon Marchand and Teddy Riner. In all, 187 French athletes were bestowed with the Legion of Honor or the National Order of Merit on Saturday, but not all participated in the parade.
Macron's celebration of the Olympic spirit that he said has produced “national harmony” came against the backdrop of a harsh political reality and a deeply divided society following an inconclusive legislative elections in July, just before the start of the Paris Games.
Faced with a hung parliament, social tensions and ballooning debt, Macron earlier this month appointed Barnier — a veteran conservative and the European Union's former Brexit negotiator — to form a new government.
Macron's decision caused fury in the left-wing coalition that won the most seats in the National Assembly, but not enough to govern alone, leaving France’s powerful lower house of parliament with no party holding a majority.
Barnier said he will present his ministers next week. The New Popular Front coalition vowed protests and censure against Macron and the new government, insisting that the president has dismissed the popular vote that gave the leftist alliance the mandate to govern.
Smoke in colours of the French national flag rises near the Arc de Triomphe on the day of a parade for all the French athletes who participated in the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 in Paris. (Sarah Meyssonnier, Pool via AP)
Antoine Dupont, gold medalist in Rugby 7s poses with olympic volunteers for a selfie on the day of a parade for all the French athletes who participated in the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
French President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee (COJO) Tony Estanguet, center, walks down the Champs Elysees avenue on the day of a parade for all the French athletes who participated in the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 in Paris.(AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
French President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee (COJO) Tony Estanguet, walks down the Champs Elysees avenue on the day of a parade for all the French athletes who participated in the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
Volunteers of Paris 2024 Olympics march on the Champs Elysees with French athletes who participated in the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 in Paris. Organizers have promised a celebration of French sport on par with the spectacular and audacious opening and closing of the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics and the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympic ceremonies. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
Volunteers of Paris 2024 Olympics and French athletes who participated in the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics take part in a parade in front of the Arc de Triomphe monument on the Champs Elysees, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 in Paris. (Andre Pain/Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - Athletes from different delegations parade during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paralympics, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
FILE - Team Greece travels by boat along the Seine river in Paris, France, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan, file)
FILE - Alpha Jets from the Patrouille de France fly over the Champs-Elysees as delegations arrive for the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympics, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, file)
FILE - Fireworks signal the end of the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony taking place at the Stade de France, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)
Workers remove grandstand seating as part of the dismantling of the Olympic venue the "Stade Tour Eiffel" with the Eiffel tower in the background in Paris, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Workers remove grandstand seating as part of the dismantling of the Olympic venue the "Stade Tour Eiffel" with the Eiffel tower in the background in Paris, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Workers remove grandstand seating as part of the dismantling of the Olympic venue the "Stade Tour Eiffel" with the Eiffel tower in the background in Paris, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
