Kosovo CEC to observe elections in Albania, interested in electronic system

CEC spokesman Valmir Elezi said of Kosovo that their commitment will not only be on election day, but also earlier, when meetings with Albania's CEC are scheduled for the very variety expected to be implemented Sunday's elections in Tirana.

Elez said that monitoring the 25 April elections is also a product of the very good co-operation Kosovo's CEC has with Albania's.

“In the composition of the CEC delegation, which will stay over the weekend in Albania, will be members of the Central Election Commission, but staff from the CEC Secretariat, who not only during election day, but also earlier will hold different meetings with the Central Election Commission there, with elected troops assigned to see how the implementation of these innovations will take place in the election process in Albania. Both of our institutions have extremely good co-operation and is in our interest to look closely at this election process and the fact that these elections are held following the recent legal changes that have been made there”, he said.

Elez confirmed that implementation of the first-time electronic counting vote in Albania is also of the CEC of Kosovo.

He added that he would focus primarily on how this process will be implemented in practice.

Special attention during the monitoring process will be dedicated especially to this area, especially to the electronic identification of voters to be held in all polling stations, as will the electronic number of balloting in a designated area in Tirana. These are projects that are first implemented in Albania and we will see closely how they are being implemented on the ground”, Elesi followed.

But is this surveillance of the electronic system a warning that such a system will soon be implemented in Kosovo? Elez says the CEC has consistently tried to use technology within the current legal framework to improve electoral processes in the country.

According to him, possible implementation of identification, voting and electricity counting in Kosovo should be preceded by a deeper study and analysis that should also be followed by legal changes.

“The CEC has constantly tried within the current legal framework to advance even this important component, I believe. Today, the CEC thanks to technology is able to quickly publish the preliminary results from the election day, and thanks to technology, our citizens can change their polling centre without having to go to the Municipal Election Commissions and learn their deployments. So these are segments that are noticed by the public in terms of technology that I use. The CEC in electoral processes as it reaches the use of this more advanced technology if we can say so, I believe deeper research and analysis are needed and, of course, legal changes to enable them to implement on the ground”, Elez said.

The next innovation in the Albanian elections predicts that for the first time 23,619 voters in Tirana will be able to exercise the right to choose and count votes electronically.