The polling stations across Albania closed officially at 19:00 as predicted, and soon after that the Central Election Commission (CEC) declared that 1,720,503 Albanians have voted in today’s election, or 47.94% of the voters. During the 2017 parliamentary elections, the number of voters was 1,613,960, or 46,77%, meaning that the 25 April elections saw a slightly increase from the previous elections. According to CEC, the counting process will finish within the next 48 hours.
The head Election Commissioner, Ilirjan Celibashi, talking about the overall process, said that it may be “too early to make a conclusion on the election process, but according to CEC, this process was characterized by calmness and safety.” For the first time ever, in this election, Albanian voters were identified electronically, while around 23,600 people in Tirana voted electronically. Some problems registered during today’s process include some technical problems at 144 voting polls. Also, around 80 operators did not show up at polling stations as expected.
