Albania Votes Today

For 140 seats in the Albanian Parliament compete 1841 candidates from 13 parties, coalitions or independents, with 39.76% or 732 female candidates.

Electronic identification is one of the innovations of this election process in Albania. This will apply throughout the country, while also preventing the possibility of double voting.

Albanian voters will have to identify themselves by passing the ID card or biometric passport on the device. This cannot afford another person's number vote. As the fingerprint doesn't match the ID, then the device will also issue an acoustic signal that will alert all commissioners to the polls.

For the first time in Albania will be electronic voting. This will be a pilot draft in an election area alone, which corresponds to administrative unit number. 10 in Tirana. In all other voting areas in the country, voting and manual counting will be implemented.

Another innovation will be the cameras at every polling station. High resolution cameras will be installed at any polling station. In case of problems, they will be further evidence for ensuring the safety of the process and the prosecution of incidents.

Unlike Kosovo, those affected by COVID will not be able to vote. The electoral code in Albania requires that voters physically appear at the polling centre and do not envision mobile teams.

This election will be voted under the proportional system with regional competition, but setting a new national threshold. Election subjects, reaching the 1% national threshold of votes, participate in the distribution of mandates.

Unlike Kosovo, which is an electoral zone, Albania is divided into 12 electoral areas that coincide with the territorial division of districts, and in each of these areas a certain number of mandates is set. The number of MPs for each electoral district is determined in proportion to the number of its residents, and thus each MP represents a close number of citizens in all circles.

Tirana's district has the largest number of mandates where parties fight for 36 seats. Fieri's district has 16 mandates -- Durres and Elbasan -- with 14 mandates, Vlora with 12 mandates -- Shkodra and Korca with 11 mandates, while the Berat district and Lezha -- each have 7 mandates. The District of Debar with 5 mandates, Gjirokastra with 4 and Kukes with 3 complete 12 electoral areas and 140 seats in Albania's Parliament.

The innovation in these elections is also the so-called open list of candidates. Elections enjoy the right to give a default vote to candidates on the lists. More specifically, the ranking of candidates on the party's list changes whether the candidate has received a number of preferential votes greater than the times, resulting from the fraction of the number of votes of the subject with the number of mandates won, but no more than 10,000 votes. / KP/