The Ulcinj police have not yet determined who threw an unknown chemical device into the hall of the local parliament on the night of May 29, 2024, interrupting the session at which the dismissal of the former mayor of that municipality, Omer Bajraktari (Civil Movement URA), was being discussed.
The Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Ulcinj told "Vijesti" that it opened a case immediately after the disputed event.
"We inform you that due to the incident where an unknown chemical device was activated, a case has been opened in this prosecutor's office against unknown perpetrators. We also inform you that the Basic State Prosecutor's Office has submitted a request to the Police Directorate OB (Security Department) Ulcinj to collect information, which orders police officers to collect the necessary information and to take legally prescribed measures and actions within their jurisdiction in order to detect and identify the perpetrators, but that officers of the Police Directorate OB Ulcinj have not yet identified the aforementioned persons," the ODT's response to the newspaper's questions states.
"Vijesti" announced at the end of August last year that the last evidentiary action taken up to that point was obtaining a list of communications.
"The implementation of this evidentiary action has been submitted to the Police Directorate. The Police Directorate's report has not been submitted so far," the Ulcinj prosecutor's office told the newspaper at the time.
By 17 p.m. yesterday, the Police Department had not sent "Vijesti" answers to questions about what they had done so far regarding the incident that occurred at the end of May last year in the Ulcinj Municipal Assembly (MA) hall, and what the video footage from surveillance cameras showed, and what the communications logs, the review of which was ordered by the local prosecutor's office, showed.
The incident occurred late at night at an extraordinary session of the Ulcinj parliament, during a discussion on the dismissal of the then mayor of the municipality, Bajraktarija, when an unknown chemical device was thrown, causing chaos in the municipal hall. The councilors then left the hall, in front of the municipality building, where ambulances and police vehicles were also present. No one was injured in the incident.
The Ulcinj ODT then told "Vijesti" that police officers were determining whether tear gas, pepper spray or some other substance was thrown. Preliminary results of the investigation showed that tear gas was not used, but some other chemical substance.
The extraordinary session of the Municipal Assembly continued a little later, and after midnight Bajraktari was dismissed from his duties by the votes of 20 councilors present. Then the new assembly majority elected Genci Nimanbegu (Forca) as the head of the Municipality.
Frictions on the Ulcinj political stage began in April last year, about a month before the announced rotation of the positions of Mayor of the Municipality and Municipal Assembly, which were held by Bajraktari and Ardijan Mavrić (Forca).
The government in Ulcinj was formed after the 2022 elections by the coalition "For a New Start" (Civil Movement URA, Democratic Party, Social Democrats, Social Democratic Party and Albanian Alternative) and Forca.
However, as “Vijesti” wrote, this majority existed only on paper in the spring of last year, because the Civic Movement URA and the Albanian Alternative had concluded an agreement with the then opposition Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) on the entry of that party into power at the local level. There was speculation that the Civic Movement URA wanted to oust Forca from power with such a move.
However, the Democratic Party, the Social Democrats and the Social Democratic Party did not agree to this scenario, so Forca concluded an agreement with them and the then opposition Democratic Party of Socialists on the formation of a new ruling coalition, which has a mandate to govern until regular local elections in early 2026.
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