TIRANA, July 19 – Albania’s Central Elections Commission will press criminal charges against 76 vote counters after discrepancies in the number of votes were found during a partial recount after Albania’s general elections last month.
The discrepancies were not big enough to change the results, but the fact that they were present worries CEC over the public losing trust in the process.
The partial recount took place in Tirana after a request by the Socialists and the PJIU
The counters now risk three to seven years in prison if found guilty.
CEC saw some debate over whether there was human error or an organized effort to alter the votes. CEC members said that the parties that nominated the counters were also to blame.
Small parties like Libra and Sfida, which did not make the threshold to enter parliament, appear to have lost the most votes due to errors or deliberate attempts to change the vote counts.
