June 12 (SeeNews) - Albania's parliament elected interior minister Bujar Nishani as president of the country, the parliament said.
A total of 73 members of the 140-seat parliament voted in support of Nishani, one was against and two votes were invalid, the parliament said in a statement on its website on Monday. This was parliament's fourth attempt to elect a president.
Under Albania's constitution, the president is elected by parliament in a secret vote without a preceding debate. Candidates should be nominated by at least 20 MPs. To be elected, a candidate needs to be backed by three-fifths of all MPs. In case parliament fails to elect a president in three rounds of voting, another two rounds are held where the candidate is elected with a simple majority. If they too prove unsuccessful, parliament is dissolved and general elections are called.
Nishani, 46, has graduated from Albania’s military academy and the Law Faculty of the University of Tirana. He has worked in the defence and the foreign ministries and has occupied senior positions in the Democratic Party of Albania's incumbent prime minister Sali Berisha.
Albania's President has a five-year term. The incumbent president Bamir Topi was elected in 2007 and his term expires in July.