TIRANA, Jan 26 – Trying to bring an end to the confusion about the production and distribution of new national identity cards, the government decided to first distribute identity cards to the 750,000 citizens who do not hold passports.
Citizens may apply for cards until April 15.
Such a decision reverses previous decisions that obliged citizens and pensioners to obtain the new IDs or they would be deprived of their salaries and pensions.
That move was made after an opposition request and also in light of serious confusion in the id card process in Tirana.
Albanians are supposed to receive new identity cards for use in the June 28 general elections.
Albanians are also supposed to receive new biometric passports, but that seems less important at the moment.
Albanians who first applied for the new IDs two weeks ago could not pick them up this past Monday, though they were promised they would be available by then.
New IDs and biometric passports are important for conducting the general elections and also as a precondition for the country’s integration efforts into the European Union.
ID distribution now only for no-passport citizens
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