The Constitutional Court of Albania has definitively ruled that the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, can continue in office, ruling that the government's decision to dismiss him was unconstitutional.

The court also declared the decree of the President of The republic to hold early municipal elections in Tirana Invalid, thus exposing not Only Edi rama but Also the country's president for his hasty decision.

In its decision, the Constitutional Court stressed that the government cannot enact new regulations that limit local self-government, as the constitutional principle of the primacy of municipal autonomy is non-negotiable. At the same time, it underlined that the procedure followed for the dismissal was incomplete, as the mayor was not physically present at the relevant meetings of the Municipal Council due to his pre-trial detention.

The decision closes one of the most controversial legal and political cases of recent months and allows Veliaj to continue his duties as mayor of Tirana from prison.

The Constitutional Court emphasized that the protection of the rights of elected local authorities and the guarantee of fair trial procedures are constitutionally guaranteed, and that the government cannot invoke the public interest to violate these guarantees.

While Rama's initial decision to fire Veliaj and call early elections was based on the paragraph of the electoral law that states that a mayor loses his office if he does not attend his duties for 90 days, the Tirana mayor's side argued that this was not a conscious choice by Veliaj as he was and remains in pretrial detention.

The defense of the mayor of Tirana emphasizes from the outset that according to Albania's electoral law, the only case in which he can be removed from office is if he has been finally convicted.