Former MP and former Minister of Agriculture of the Democratic Party, Rexhep Uka, refuses to be part of the race for President of the Republic, following the proposal by Democratic MPs.
His name was proposed at the meeting of the PD parliamentary group by Xhelal Mziu, but Uka indicates that he had not been asked before by the PD deputy. Uka refuses to return to active politics, as he disappoints them and does not support the current formula of electing the President. According to him, the President of the Republic should be elected by vote of the people.
"I called Xhelal Mziu and thanked him for the assessment. It is his opinion, but the proposal has nothing to do with me. I have not had any notice, nothing and I have not even been asked. I do not accept it. I see a very big responsibility I have a point of view on this issue and I do very deep analysis on such things. Now I'm not younger. I know the situation well. I grind it, I know politics too. I am at the stage when the public opinion, the people who have supported me, the people who know me, I have tried that job, I have tried and I have said all my thoughts in all eras. In a way I have expressed it I feel, but I also understood where I am. And it has nothing to do with me. But I still really appreciate the fact that the deputy proposed me.
My grievances will always pull a President out of the drawers. We have seen how this work goes. I have stated, I have voted against the constitutional changes. I have said that in this quagmire, let the people have a representative of their own. Presidents, candidates come out, we have models in the world, they collide with each other, they get real grades, but not by making drawings in drawers and things like that. This is not the President that Albania needs.
I have long been a partisan for the President to be elected by the people. Get out there in the square. "Only in front of the people is it known whether it is tin or copper or what it is," Rexhep Uka told the Panorama newspaper.