The Government of – Albania

Hello and welcome back to my country’s government series and our next stop after Afghanistan is Albania.  

Albania is a country located in the South East of Europe in the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by four different countries, Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece and Kosovo, although some countries refuse to recognize Kosovo, which is a recent country that split off from Serbia which also caused a war. Albania also has a coastline along the Adriatic and Ionian seas and Albania’s capital city is Tirana. Interestingly Albania is one of the few countries in Europe to have a majority of Muslims, this is due to its previous history within the Ottoman Empire. Another interesting fact is that Albania is a recent Democracy, transitioning from Communism in the early 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2017 Albania’s population is coming up to 3 million.  

Government Type

Albania is a Unitary state which means that there is a single supreme government that rules over the country, rather than a number of local governments that are ruled over by a single federal government and have the right to exist as equals, such as in the US, this is known as a Federation. There can be local devolved governments in a unitary state but they have no power over the main supreme government and at any time the local governments can be dissolved or have powers removed from them by the main supreme government, so unlike in Federations, they do not have the right to exist as equals and so something like this happening in a Federation is pretty much impossible without constitutional change and judiciary interference.  

Albania is also a Parliamentary Republic where the executive government must answer to and command the confidence of the legislative chamber to remain in power. Finally, Albania is also a constitutional Republic which means the government has a constitution it must abide by law, setting out how the government operates and works as well as other systems that make up and enable the government to effectively work, the most recent constitution came into law in 1998.  A Republic is basically where the general populace have some power to influence the make-up of government, such as through voting.

The Executive Government

Albania is a country that has two leaders, both a President and a Prime Minister.  

The President acts as the Head of State representing the country abroad and is also the Commander-in-Chief meaning they have powers over the countries armed forces. The Presidential role is mostly ceremonial with the Prime Minister ultimately having the most political power within government, but the President does have a number of exclusive powers such as appointing the Prime Minister after legislative elections, being able to appoint various other positions, not all necessarily in government, being able to declare war with the permission of the parliament as well as signing international agreements in accordance with the law and the ability to pardon people from the justice system.  

To be eligible for President article 89 of the constitution states that the person must be a natural-born citizen of Albania, to have lived in the country for at least 10 years and to be at least 40 years old. The President has a two-term limit and so can serve a max of 10 years in office.  

The Prime Minister, is Head of Executive Government and heads a cabinet of Ministers called the Council of Ministers who take care of numerous governing operations and alongside the Prime Minister they work to implement legislation passed by the legislative chamber, for the Prime Minister and his/her cabinet to remain in power he or she must command the confidence of the legislative chamber at all times. There is a Deputy Prime Minister if the Prime Minister is ever incapable for a period of time, the Deputy Prime Minister is also appointed by the President but the Prime Minister can also choose not to have one appointed.  

The Legislative Government

The Legislative Government is in the form of a Unicameral Parliament, this means that there is only one equal house that debates on and passes legislation instead of their being two separate lower and higher Houses in a Bicameral Parliament. In Albania the parliament is called the Kuvendi.  

Currently parliament has 140 members who are elected from twelve multi-seat constituencies in Legislative elections, this number can change based on the population level of each of the constituencies. Albania is a multi-party system and so, much of parliament is made up of said parties.  

The Legislative Government has a number of duties such as debating and passing legislation, budgets, approving the Prime Minister cabinet decisions, electing the President, the ability to declare war and amend the constitution and is also able to call a referendum and grant amnesty. The Prime Minister, President, Chairperson of the parliament and a one-fifth vote of the parliament has the ability to call on an extraordinary meet of the parliament in extreme circumstances.  

The Legislative Chamber is presided over by the Chairperson of the Parliament who is elected by the parliament itself, he/she is charged with moderating debate, allowing people to speak and making sure parliament rules are followed. He/she will also take over the presidential position in the face of the Presidents absence.  

The Electoral Process

There are two separate elections for President and Legislative Parliament in Albania but the President is not elected by the people but instead by the Legislative Chamber.  

The Legislative Chamber elects a president through several rounds of proposed candidates before an eventual winner receives a three-fifths majority (although this has apparently since been changed to only needing a half of votes) of votes and becomes the next President. A President serves for a 5-year term before the next election and one person can hold office for two terms, which is 10 years before they must step aside. Presidential Elections by the parliament are done through a secret ballot so it is not known who each member votes for.  

Legislative elections happen every 4 years and determines what party holds the Unicameral Chamber and also determines what Prime Minister will be appointed to executive government by the President. 140 members are elected through closed-list proportional representation from twelve different multi-seat constituencies. What this means is that each vote is for a party and not a specific candidate and the percentage result and divisions of the election for each party will be reflected in the new parliament.  

To qualify parties must get at least 3 percent of the vote in any constituency, if it is a multi-party coalition then this is upped to needing at least 5 percent of the vote in any constituency.  

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Thank you for reading this post and I hope you learned something from it. Next up in this series will be Algeria.  

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