Edi Paloka and Gazmend Bardhi met yesterday for more than an hour in a bar in front of the parliament in the first attempt for the two DP groups to come up with joint candidates in the local elections.
At the end of the meeting they were very reserved for the media, but both took care to say that the talks will continue.
According to Edi Paloka, Berisha's representative for this meeting, the first conversation with Gazmend Bardhi, the representative of the Alibeaj group, cannot be called a failure.
"News24" has learned details from this conversation and the key point where the two parties are divided, and if it continues to remain so, it risks leading the PD with two candidates to the local elections. It is learned that Edi Paloka has offered Bardhi that the candidates supported by the Alibeajt group become part of the primaries organized by PD.
Paloka has promised a transparent and honest process in these primaries, at the end of which, the one who received the most votes will be nominated as the candidate for mayor. But Gazmend Bardhi has opposed this idea. According to him, entering all the candidates in the primaries will split the DP more than it is divided today.
"Primaries organize the branches and sections according to your instructions. Which branch will organize them, the branch you have chosen or the branch we know?" Bardhi asked.
As a solution, he has proposed the selection of potential names for mayors and putting them in local polls. This alternative has recently been liked by Agron duka and Dashamir Shehi, two allies of PD. The first meeting between Bardhi and Paloka did not produce any results, but only a positive signal.
The agenda distributed last night by the DP headquarters informs that the identification of candidates within the opposition who will undergo the primaries will last until November 6. Until this day, it seems that the efforts within the DP to come up with a name in the race for the local elections will continue.