At the peak of electoral campaign for his third term as Mayor of Fier Municipality, the socialist candidate, Armando Subashi, promised to Libofsha’s residents that rehabilitation of center of the village would be completed very soon. However, residents have been living for 8 months now in the middle of the mud and darkness as the work started during the campaign was interrupted. Fier Municipality admits to Faktoje the lack of funding for Libofsha’s centre.
Jona Plumbi
Mr. Njazi Muharremi and Mrs. Muharremi are both retired. They lived all their live in Libofsha. There, in Libofsha, they raised their children before the latter left the village to immigrate for a better life. They are currently living together in the two-story home near Libofsha centre.
16 November 2023 – Libofshë
Diggers came and dug up the street, where he’s living with his wife, a little while before elections in Libofsha. Residents were told that such works are being done for Libofsha’s pedestrian street, as part Rural Renaissance works.
Start of works in Libofsha was announced by the Mayor and the socialist candidate of that time for his third term in Fier, Armando Subashi along with Ermonela Felaj, MP of the region.
Both politicians can be heard in the video discussing the very quick completion of the works after their start.
To check the performance of works 6 months after Armando Subashi took 2060 votes in Libofsha, Faktoje went there to carry out an on-site verification.
No works have been done in Libofsha center an it’s totally intact. The board of works has been removed leaving the rusted iron skeleton only.
Libofsha Center, 16 November 2023
We met Njazi nearby and he told us that works started at the street near his house, however after digging the street, the workers left and never came back.
Njazi told us that in rainy days, all the street mud and water enter his backyard. This situation has been going on for eight months.
Residents of this street in Libofsha have been left with no light and no sewerage. They told us that, previously, there were two solar panels for street lighting which were removed by the municipality and are still not replaced.
Libofsha, 16 November 2023
The situation repeats itself in all the streets around Libofsha centre.
For more information, we addressed a request for information to Fier Municipality asking about the project announced by the Mayor as one that would be completed “within the first year”.
Fier Municipality initially told us that the requested information is bulky thus asking us to go to Fier to retrieve the required papers. But then, the Municipality refused to inform us on the fee be paid and on time when we could retrieve the requested “bulky material”.
Almost a month following the notice that papers had to be physically withdrawn in Fier Municipality, the latter answered electronically to the asked questions.
According to Fier Municipality” “Rehabilitation of Libofsha Center” project is still under permit procedure and as long as the project is not funded, i.e., it’s not in the realization/implementation phase, the authors preserving their intellectual property rights, cannot approach it to the public”.
Thus, not only was Libofsha centre not close to completion on May when Subashi and Felaj shoot the electoral video, but, according to Fier Municipality, this project has not even been funded yet, let alone to start with its implementation works.
Given this official information and based on the on-site verification, we categorize the electoral promise of Mayor of Fier Municipality on completion of works in Libofsha centre, as unfulfilled.
*”Faktoje”, supported by National Endowment Democracy (NED) is monitoring 10 municipalities and is verifying if promises made by Mayors are fulfilled or not.
