Albania's Constitutional Court has overturned a parliamentary decision to impeach President Ilir Meta for inciting instability and showing bias ahead of the country's parliamentary elections last year, AP reported.

The court said the evidence against Meta did not constitute a serious violation of the constitution, which is the legal threshold for the resignation of a sitting president.

Albanian lawmakers voted 104 to 7 in favor to impeach Meta last June after a parliamentary inquiry concluded he had violated 16 articles of the constitution and incited violence because of his bias against the ruling socialists during the April 2021 election campaign.

Meta, whose term expires in July, condemned the investigation and impeachment, saying they were illegal.

The impeachment process was initiated by 49 ruling Socialist MPs who accused Meta, a former Socialist prime minister who left the party years ago, of instigating instability and violence in the Balkan country.