How much elections cost Albania

The 25 June elections have cost the state budget $6m. This is the amount the Central Election Commission has spent, from the day of the election date decreed by former President Nishani to the final certificate of election outcome

The 25 June elections have cost about $6 million. This is the necessary amount to prepare and manage an election process. It's a lot that corresponds more or less to the organisation of previous election processes, so we say that in some way the state budget is prepared for this sum”, said Clement Zguri, chairman of the CEC.

Much of the budget, according to the expenses made by the CEC, has gone for goods and services -- the technical preparation of the elections -- at 448 million dollars.

“All this funds are detailed for everything, any expense, any procedure that is made and carried out during an election process, as the president's decree appears. Here I have in mind the salaries at all commission levels, KZAZ, the voting centre commissions, the counting groups and I have to say it's a considerable number of participants. There are about 40-45 thousand people participating in the process. A considerable place in all of the budget needed to prepare the choices that are necessary for the process, I have here in mind the ballot sheets, boxes, security codes, magnetic paint, polling stations, or counting centres because most are private” environments, Zgur said. But are we going to spend less on elections, if technology will apply to 2019 bars, so counting and voting electronics? And in our current budget, technology takes a particular place because we're familiar that in the place of vote count, the sheets become visible through technology. It is a set sum that the CEC has estimated necessary to carry out this operation. But if the lawmaker wants to judge and reason that technology is involved on a wider level, such as voting and counting electronics and other elements, it certainly corresponds to a certain amount. I'm not an expert, and I don't know how to say numbers, but I know it's going to be a significant figure that will have to get out of the state budget”, the head of the CEC said.