Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), the largest party representing mainly ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, announced it will propose new candidates to fill in its seats in the Government, after all the DUI ministers resigned on Thursday evening. Party leader Ali Ahmeti, who was given free rein to manage the party by its Presidency, decided that the best next step is to nominate new candidates that will be in the Government until the elections on 5 June.
Parliament is expected to meet on Monday, to receive the resignations of DUI's ministers and, as is likely, to vote for their replacements. Festim Halili and Arber Ademi have been nominated as Deputy Prime Ministers, the first in charge of European integration, and the latter-for implementation of the Ohrid framework agreement. They are replacing Fatmir Besimi and Musa Xhaferi, respectively.
Valdet Xhaferi is the candidate for new Justice Minister, Pishtar Lutfiu for Education and Science, and Driton Kuchi is DUI's nominee for the post of Economy Minister. Shuhrete Elezi should be the next Municipal Self-Governance Minister, and Bashkim Ahmeti is proposed to the department of Environment and Spatial Planning. They will take the places of Adnan Jashari, Abdulaqim Ademi, Bekim Neziri, Lirim Shabani and Nurhan Izairi.
DUI is also nominating Arlind Zeqiri to the seat of a minister without department-in charge of helping bring foreign investment to the country. Four other candidates are nominated as deputy ministers-Agim Nuhiu to the Interior Ministry, Bekim Maksuti to the Defense Ministry, Faton Pollozhani to the Transportation Ministry and Gzim Beadini to the Finance Ministry.
The new DUI candidates are little known to the public. The move is expected to free the previous Government ministers, who represent some of the leading political figures in DUI, to lead the party's campaign in the early elections. The decision to withdraw the ministers was made after a spate of new wiretap leaks, of a personal and sensitive nature, some of which allegedly included top DUI officials. Ahmeti called on the institutions, such as the Special Public Prosecutor's Office, to deal with the source of the leaks, and warned that if they don't, the party will take steps on its own to protect its officials.
VMRO-DPMNE, which is at the core of the Government, and DUI, have a solid majority in Parliament and should be able to elect the new ministers. The Parliament has already voted to dissolve itself on 7 April, to pave way for the elections on 5 June, and the Government is already technical in charge only of conducting the elections. Besides VMRO, DUI and their pre-election coalition partners, the Government includes two technical ministers and three deputy ministers from the opposition SDSM party, in posts where they can help oversee the organization of the elections.cc/09:00