The Prime Minister of Albania, officially styled Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania, is the head of government of the Republic of Albania and the most powerful and influential person in Albanian politics. The prime minister holds the executive power of the nation and represents the Council of Ministers and chairs its meetings.
Sali Ram Berisha is an Albanian conservative politician who served as the second President of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and Prime Minister from 2005 to 2013. He was also chairman of the Democratic Party of Albania twice, from 1991 to 1992 and then again from 1997 to 2013.
Rexhep Qemal Meidani is an Albanian physics professor, diplomat and politician. Meidani was the 4th President of Albania from 1997 to 2002, after to be elected after the first multi-party elections in 1991.
Edi Rama is an Albanian politician, painter, writer, former pedagogue, publicist and former basketball player, who has served as the 33rd and current Prime Minister of Albania since 2013 and chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania since 2005.
Fatos Thanas Nano is an Albanian socialist politician who served as Prime Minister of Albania in 1991, from 1997 to 1998 and from 2002 to 2005. He was the first leader and founder of the Socialist Party of Albania and a member of the Albanian Parliament from 1991 to 1996 and 1997 to 2009. He reformed the Anti-Revisionist Marxist-Leninist ideology of the Labor Party of Albania into social democracy for its successor, the Socialist Party. During his leadership, the Socialist Party, as a result of reforms, joined the Socialist International and Party of European Socialists. Nano was a candidate in the 2007 presidential election but did not win. He again tried in the 2012 presidential election, but he did not even qualify as a candidate, because the leaders of parties in Parliament obstructed their respective MPs to elect him as candidate in the elections.
Regular elections in Albania are mandated by the Constitution and legislation enacted by Parliament. The Parliament (Kuvendi) has 140 members elected for four-year terms. The electoral system is closed list proportional representation. There are 12 multi-member constituencies corresponding to the country's 12 administrative regions. Within any constituency, parties must meet a threshold of 3 percent of votes, and pre-election coalitions must meet a threshold of 5 percent of votes.
The Demochristian Party of Albania is a small Christian democratic political party in Albania.
Aleksandër Gabriel Meksi is an Albanian archaeologists and politician who served as the 34th Prime Minister of Albania from April 13, 1992, to March 11, 1997. A former archaeologist, he was the first person to be prime minister of Albania after the end of communist rule. Meksi was a member of the Democratic Party of Albania and took office at the same time as President Sali Berisha, who also belonged to that party. Before entering politics, Meksi was a researcher and restorer of monuments of medieval architecture.
The Albanian Civil War in 1997 was sparked by pyramid scheme failures in Albania soon after its transition to a market economy. The government was toppled and more than 2,000 people were killed. Various sources describe the violence that ensued as a rebellion, or a civil war, or a rebellion that gradually escalated into a civil war.
Genc Pollo is an Albanian conservative politician. An orthodox Christian and trained historian, Pollo was co-founder and first spokesman of the Albanian Democratic Party. He is a member of the Albanian Parliament since 1996 and held various minister posts since 2005.
Lulzim Basha is an Albanian conservative politician who was Mayor of Tirana, from 2011 to 2015. He has also been Chairman of the Democratic Party of Albania, the main opposition party, since 2013.
In 1991, the Socialist Party of Albania, with specific social democratic ideology took control of the country through democratic elections. One year later the Democratic Party of Albania won the new elections. After 1990, Albania has been seeking a closer relationship with the West. What followed were deliberate programs of economic and democratic reform, but Albanian inexperience with capitalism led to the proliferation of pyramid schemes – which were not banned due to the corruption of the government. Chaos in late 1996 to early 1997, as a result of the collapse of these pyramid schemes, alarmed the world and prompted the influx of international peacekeeping forces. In 1995, Albania was accepted into the Council of Europe and requested membership in NATO and is a potential candidate country for accession to the European Union. The workforce of Albania has continued to emigrate to Western countries, especially Greece and Italy.
Myqerem Tafaj is an Albanian politician and university professor. He is a member of the Democratic Party of Albania and served as Minister of Education and Sciences in the cabinet of Sali Berisha. He was also Deputy Prime Minister from 4 April 2013 to 14 September 2013.
Gent Hysen Strazimiri was a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania for the Democratic Party of Albania (DP). He was Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs from 2007 to 2009. Strazimiri is also member of the committee on Legal Affairs, Public Administration and Human Rights and Committee on Education and Public Information.
The Albanian local elections of 2011 took place on 8 May 2011 in Albania. Electors were asked to elect their municipality's mayor, municipal council members, municipal unit mayor, and municipal unit members. The elections were administrated by the Central Election Commission of Albania. Only 9 of the 384 winning candidates were women.
The Municipal Council of Tirana is the legislative body of Tirana, Albania. As of 2018 it consists of 61 members who serve a 4-year term. The members of the council are elected in local elections and the last elections were won by the Socialist Party. The member of the council elects the Chairman of the council.
Blendi Klosi is an Albanian Socialist Party politician and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Berat. On 13 September 2017, Mr. Klosi was appointed as Minister of Tourism and Environment by the 2nd Rama government.
Monika Kryemadhi is an Albanian politician, member of Parliament and the leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration party. She is also the wife of Ilir Meta the President of Albania. Monika Kryemadhi refused the position of First Lady of Albania -- delegating the role instead to her eldest daughter, Bora.
Libya has an embassy in Tirana.
The 2017 Albanian opposition protests were a series of anti-government protests, largely in Tirana, which centered around government corruption, the illicit drug situation in Albania, fear of electoral fraud in the parliamentary elections, and alleged manipulation of the voting process by the Socialist government.
