TIRANA, Oct. 27 – On Friday, a spokesperson for the country’s General Prosecution Office announced it officially began investigations against the activity of Durres Mayor Vangjush Dako, but did not specify what the charges are.
Spokesperson Denion Ndrenika said Dako is not under investigation himself and that the prosecution is rather investigating his and other people’s activities to later decide if it should take “penal action.”
“Dako is not under investigation, but that doesn’t mean his activity is not being investigated. His and many other people’s activities are being investigated and by the end it will be concluded if there are elements of penal action,” Ndrenika said.
Asked by local media whether Dako is being investigated for the surfacing allegations he is tied with a criminal organization and vote-buying during the Socialist Party’s 2017 electoral campaign, Ndrenika gave no answer.
Dako, on the other hand, told the BIRN investigative network he is unaware of the investigation and therefore has no comments.
Last week, Albanian police targeted and arrested a big number of people suspected to have severely broken the law or belong and run criminal rings, under the “Force of Law” operation.
Amid the targeted individuals was the Avdylaj family, for which local media has reported it runs drug labs in the country and narcotics trafficking domestically and internationally. The audio-surveillance tapes used to target the Avdylaj family uncovered conversations with a mobile number now proved to be Dako’s which pointed at a deal to protect the Avdylaj family from the police in return of votes in Dako’s and the Socialist majority’s favor.
Durres mayor since 2007 and one of the leading political figures of the governing SP, Dako has been achieving consecutively growing success in his electoral area, with the biggest win having been registered during the parliamentary elections of June 2017.
During the 2007 local elections, Dako won against his rival with a small difference of 300 votes. During the 2011 elections, he won with a difference of 3500 votes, while four years later, during 2015, when the Durres municipality included voters from surrounding Durres villages as per the new administrative reform, Dako won with 57 percent of votes.
Analysts have thus pointed out the SP significantly improved its results through the years in the Durres municipality, now including the Shijak and Kruje municipalities, winning with almost 50 percent of votes in 2017 as opposed to the 39 percent they had achieved in 2013.
The country’s opposition Democratic Party has alleged in the past Dako has conducted electoral fraud and is tied with criminal elements. In context of the latest arrests, the opposition has resumed its strong accusations that the SP’s electoral success is directly tied with its link to organized crime.
Last week’s police operation already led to the arrest of two former Socialist lawmakers under corruption and adverse possession charges.
Right after the police operation concluded, however, details from the prosecution’s investigative files were leaked to the DP and the media and uncovered at least two cases where individuals arrested for drug trafficking are also suspected of conducting vote-buying on behalf of the SP for the 2017 parliamentary elections.
Last week, the DP accused the prosecution of hiding Dako’s involvement and avoiding investigation into electoral fraud. Following, opposition leader Lulzim Basha demanded for an official investigation to begin.
A part of the prosecution’s files leaked to the media showed Gjevi Ndoka, brother of one of the arrested former SP lawmakers Arben Ndoka, was surveilled buying votes for the SP.
The Ndoka brothers were arrested under document falsification and adverse possession charges. Last Wednesday, the pleaded innocent in front of the Serious Crimes Court, but were left in prison by the court.
The leaked information on Dako showed a phone call where he sought to speak with one of the Avdylaj brothers to thank him, while the conversation was reportedly conducted right after the 2017 elections.
During the TV show in which Dako admitted the surveilled cell phone number belongs to him, Dako did not deny speaking to the accused Avdylaj brothers, but rather said that as a politician he has to talk to all his voters.
“I haven’t paid to win the elections,” Dako said during the Opinion TV show.
