Over 230,000 voters registered from diaspora for May 11th Albanian elections

This is the first time the Albanian diaspora has voted in parliamentary elections in Albania.

Tuesday's midnight was the last deadline set by the CEC for registering voters from abroad.

According to official CEC data, 20,000 requests are being considered to see if the documentation is regular. The commission has five days to review them and announce the final number of voters from abroad, reports Radio Free Europe.

The CEC generally accepted 294,025 requests, but about 42,000 of them have been rejected due to irregularities in the submitted documents.

The highest number of voters from abroad registered in Italy, about 148,000, then in Greece about 103,000, as well as in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and so on.

215 voters are registered from Kosovo. Of some 30 countries, including Palestinian territory, there has been only one demand.

According to a report by the Statistics Institute in 2020, the number of what is known as the “diaspora new”, or displaced immigrants from Albania during the 1990s has reached about 1.68 million.

Representatives of the opposition Democratic Party sought to postpone the deadline for voter registration from abroad, while the ruling Socialist Party called for the deadline only for those voters whose demands have been rejected.

However, the CEC decided not to extend the deadline, as it would complicate the process of announcing the list and reviewing it if necessary. It is expected to publish the voter list from abroad on 9 March. The diaspora census was launched on January 11th.

How will the Albanian diaspora vote?

The ballots will be sent to voters from abroad through international post operators with branches in Albania, and then their votes will be brought to Albania. The costs for this process are met by the state budget.

Central Election Commission head Iliran Celibashi has declared that the vote from abroad will impact the outcome of the May 11th elections.

“Matmatically there are 23-25 mandates that can be influenced by votes from outside”, Celibashi said.

For the May 11th elections, 51 political subjects have been registered, while applying for three pre-election coalition registrations.

The coalition “Alliance for Greater Albania” is led by Sali Berisha's Democratic Party and comprises Ilir Meta Freedom Party and 24 other allies.

The “ruling Development Coalition”, which includes two parties led by former Democratic Party representatives. The other coalition is “Nisma Albania becomes”, which has new parties coming from civil society.

In these elections, the ruling Socialist Party, led by Prime Minister Edi Rama, demands the fourth mandate, while the Democrats require political change and return to power after 12 years in opposition.