In his first appearance after the public debate with Endri Shabani, the leader of Shqipëria Bëhet, Adriatik Lapaj, confessed that the formula with family members on the closed list was proposed by Endri Shabani. In the studio of the Debate with Alba Alishani on A2 CNN, Lapaj said that he bears responsibility for this decision-making and apologized to his supporters.
"We have been committed to opening the lists, we have also gone to the Constitutional Court. From a distance, the same thing was also noticed by the Nisma Thurje Initiative. What has united us have been the same principles regarding competition, meritocracy and open lists. We took the first step to the Constitutional Court where we went to oppose the closing of the lists. In this regard, the cooperation that took place at the request of many citizens was met and discussed with the formula that would be used to have coherence regarding the open lists. This formula was proposed by him with his family members. I had my hesitations, but the total temptation to give the citizens that open list as they had been committed to was not to escape responsibility but to tell the truth. There are many witnesses but there is no problem. I bear full responsibility for that decision-making because if I had not expressed my consensus, this would not have happened."
According to Lapaj, this decision came because of the law, which they wanted to challenge as unfair, but also because of the friendship he had with Shabani, which did not turn out to be the right one.
"The law is unfair, it steals the votes of citizens. The law has openly stolen 5 mandates from us. They want to take away the last one with a sly smile. We wanted to challenge the law. This was a unanimous decision of our leadership and I don't know about the other party. If I had been convinced that it wouldn't work, I would have insisted on no. It was very honest on our part. I didn't know Mr. Shabani today, I had known him for 12 years, we had friends beyond politics and to be honest, this could be my personal mistake for which I apologize to those who supported us. At this point, I showed a lower level of care in relation to what I could do because I thought that beyond politics is the human relationship between us, which turned out to be inappropriate."
Lapaj accuses Shabani of taking revenge on 64,000 voters and his 15-year career as an activist, while also showing recent messages when he attempted to compromise on behalf of those he trusted.
"He has taken revenge on 64 thousand people, on my 15 years of uninterrupted engagement as an activist, on 1 thousand of our activists who have worked at home and in the diaspora, and on every honest Albanian who has expected to have hope and who is expected to believe in what is happening. My communication was today at 2:00 in the morning."
Asked if he had any comments regarding Shabani's latest reaction on social media, Lapaj replied: "I don't deal with it anymore, I have asked him not to be a reason to spiritually crush those who have trusted us and to go to the conference together. He was very stoic. I tried to compromise."
(A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
