Letter to Rama: Beleri challenges interim appointment plans

Fredi Beleri, the incarcerated ethnic Greek elected mayor of the Albanian region of Himare, penned a letter to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Sunday. This action followed the resignation of defeated mayor Gjergji Goro, who, having lost to Beleri in the elections, assumed mayoral duties amid his imprisonment. 

Beleri in his letter stressed that Rama was wrong to seek another “chosen” interim mayor without taking the people’s mandate into account. 

Beleri has been incarcerated pending trial since May on vote-buying charges after his arrest on the eve of municipal elections which he won against Socialist candidate Goro. Goro resigned on Saturday following Rama’s labeling of Beleri as the “elected mayor” and Goro as the “defeated candidate without legitimacy” in a post on Thursday. 

In his letter to Rama on Sunday, Beleri emphasized that any temporary mayor until his release and inauguration must be a municipal council member from their winning coalition in the May 2023 elections. The appointee must reflect the people’s mandate in Himare and must not be from outside the municipality, said Beleri.