U.S. Embassy strongly reacts to elections: Very serious violations during the process

The US Embassy considers the election process with many violations, while stressing that voting purchase incidents, photography of the ballot sheet, and pressure to separate voters were at an alarming level.

The United States congratulates Albanian citizens for exercising their democratic right to vote in the 25 June, 2017 parliamentary elections.

The vote was conducted efficiently and peacefully in most of the polling stations. We congratulate dedicated employees and observers of the voting day elections who worked during a national holiday and extreme heat to fulfill their duties. International observers witnessed incidents of vote buying, photographs of the ballot sheet, and expect voters.

Election officials and rule forces responded most of these complaints, some of which ended in arrests. Although some of the election violations testified were serious and should be addressed, they were not widespread enough to change the overall outcome of the <x0 elections, the US statement said.