TIRANA, July 1 – Albania’s local elections’ process ended on Sunday according to the deadline at seven pm, marking a number of irregularities and a very low voter turnout.
Despite the big controversy accompanying these local elections taking place without a valid opposition and after the President decreed a new date for them to take place, the process developed without violent incidents.
Excluding an episode in Sukth, Durres, where a person entered a voting centre armed, taking the ballot box and subsequently damaging the electoral materials, resulting in being arrested by the police, the voting process did not register other serious episodes.
Across the country, despite the difficulties and small citizen turnout, the polls were opened on time, except for some in Shkodra, where voting did not take place at all.
The most recent data, published on Monday at six pm, highlighted an all-time low of participation at 19.4 percent, or around 67,000 voters. The turnout now stands in the way between the majority and the opposition which, besides its boycott, called on citizens not to participate in the polling day. In this battle of political interpretation of participation, the opposition appears to be winning, not only because it has stressed this fact over the last two days, but also because its absence automatically leads to at least its supporters not participating in the elections.
On the other hand, that part of the electorate that was undecided had no motivation to engage in a predictable process, as in almost half of the municipalities the Socialist candidates had no rivals. Sunday’s high temperatures also caused many citizens to run to the beaches instead of going to vote. A similar effect had the tense situation ahead of the voting day and the fear of possible clashes and issues.
Nonetheless, the Democratic Party, accused the Central Election Commission that “it deceived Albanians and partners with only four SP members concerning the real number of those who voted all day and until the end of the show. From monitoring all polling stations up until their closure at seven pm, it has resulted that the factual turnout in the country was 15 percent,” DP lawyer Ivi Kaso said.
These were the first elections for which the attention was not directed to the result, but to the security issues and whether they would develop smoothly or mark clashes. On its side, the opposition not only did not get involved, but also strongly insisted that it would not allow them to be held. In the past two weeks, there have been attacks in several cities towards the offices of the Zonal Commissions, while the municipalities run by right-win mayors did not allow the use of local institutions for the purpose of administering the electoral process.
As the process ended, local media reported a number of irregularities in addition to the opposition’s claims that the turnout number was manipulated to be higher.
In some municipalities – eleven in total – the number of votes surpassed the number of voters, leading to some SP candidates winning with over 100 percent.
In addition to the South’s Ura Vajgurore, where the Socialist Party won by 129 percent, a similar trend was noticed in the municipalities of Vora, Memaliaj, Malà«si e Madhe, Lushnja, Himara, Divjakà«, Bulqizà«, Vau i Dejà«s, Gramsh and Selenica.
In Vora, Socialist Agim Kajmak was declared a winner with 6,208 votes, although according to the Central Elections Commission list, only 6120 people voted in this municipality. According to the CEC, Vora was won by more than 88 votes, so the Socialists won by 101 percent.
In Memaliaj, the socialist Gjolek Guci won 4,206 votes, but the number of voters was 4,150. According to CEC, in Memaliaj Guci won by 56 more votes than were voters and the same happened in Voro, where the Socialists won by about 101 percent.
In Malà«si e Madhe, socialist Tonin Marinaj won by 7772 votes, while the other candidate Pjerin Spathari received 493 votes. For this municipality, the CEC said 7600 people voted. However, the votes found in the box totaled 8265, 665 more than reported.
The figure of more than 771,000 voters is slightly higher than the number of those who voted the Socialist Party in 2017 (about 765,000). However, it should be mentioned that the figures were given by unilateral election commissions, as the opposition did not attend the June 30 process.
Meanwhile, in Shkodra’s Postriba, seven polling stations, out of 15 in total, have not been opened, thus denying the right of citizens to vote. Concerning the case, CEC member Bledar Skender stated that the vote has no reason to repeat, as long as it would not change the result, since Shkodra had only one candidate.
Although the protests were uneventful, OSCE Head of Mission Audrey Glover canceled the visit at voting centre no. 35, located at Vasil Shanto school. The cancelation was justified with “inappropriate monitoring conditions.”
A similar reaction came from all international partners, who urged all political sides to avoid violence and to grant citizens the right to vote.
Prime Minister Edi Rama and head of the resigned opposition’s Democratic Party Lulzim Basha, commented on the local elections from their own unchanged positions.
Both saw Sunday’s developments as a confirmation of the steps followed by the two largest parties. What for Basha was “refusal to participate,” for Rama was seen as “the victory of European Albania.”
Rama said in the evening that today’s vote won the future, the state, citizenship and hope.
“Albania’s European tomorrow has rightly and dignitously won. Yesterday’s Albania lost rightfully and shamefully. It was a difficult day, perhaps the most difficult among the battles of present day Albania,” said Rama, interrupted by the applause of socialist supporters.
On the other hand, Basha said in the evening that Albanians massively abandoned the unilateral and illegal voting of socialists.
“Eighty-five percent of registered voters rejected the illegal elections. Rama today also boycotted the Socialists” he said.
Basha said that Socialist Party votes were characterized by massive manipulations, predictable results, vote rigging, threats, use of public resources and state administration, multiple votes by the same person, stuffing boxes and other serious violations.
Basha also criticized international partners for not commenting on the German BILD publications showing massive vote-rigging from the SP during the 2017 elections.
After the voting centers closed, the transfer of materials towards counting centres began.
The whole process, as well as the outcome, is expected to be followed closely by the ODIHR’s international observers, which is also expected to offer a preliminary assessment of the entire process on Monday.
