Still low interest in Greek Albanians to register for May 11th vote

According to Central Election Commission data, by Tuesday 24 February, over 80 thousand Albanians working and living in Greece have sought to register to vote in the May 11th elections in Albania.

Albanian citizens in Greece make up about 28% of the requirements to vote from around 227 thousand requests that are so far total to the diaspora.

Albanian citizens in Greece rank behind Albanian citizens living in Italy, who have so far submitted about 111,000 requests to the CEC.

According to the CEC's electronic database around 50,000 Albanian citizens living in neighbouring Greece have been accepted requests and adopted as elector by the Central Election Commission, while about 13 thousand have been refused for lack of documentation.

The Greek Migration Ministry's data in January this year speaks that some 277 thousand Albanians result in regular permits in Greece, representing 55.9% of foreigners in this country.

This figure is added to Albanians in Greece by about 15 thousand members of the Greek minority who have in Greece another status of “homgens” and have the right to vote in Albania after preserving Albanian citizenship even after migration to Greece.

But, according to Athens press analysts, the figure of Albanians with Albanian documents in Greece, but who do not yet have Greek permission of residence, could be much higher than Greek Migration Ministry data.

The census so far of about 50,000 to vote in Albanian elections speaks of a still low pace, while the registration deadline expires on 4 March.

Albania's main political parties have held intensive campaigns in several areas of Greece heavily inhabited by Albanian immigrants in recent days, urging them to register and vote.

Meanwhile, Albanian authorities took several steps early this year to enable in some Greek islands the identity equipment of Albanian citizens through mobile platforms to enable registration in the May 11th Albanian elections.

According to estimates by the Albanian Institute of Statistics in the study “The diaspora in the figure 2020” the number of Albanian citizens abroad is estimated to be around 1.6 million, which account for about 37 % of Albanian citizens in total.

Meanwhile, according to unofficial data in January 2025, the number of Albanians in the diaspora has amounted to about 1.75 million.

By Tuesday's 24 February afternoon at the database for voter registration from outside the CEC resulted in 226780 Albanian citizens applying for registration to vote in the 11 May parliamentary elections.

So far according to CEC 181,371 citizens have been approved requests and 39,282 have been denied.

Circles with the largest number of electors from abroad registered so far are Tirana, Fieri, Durres, Elbasan, Korca and Vlora. / VOA