Albania Votes Today

Citizens of Albania today will address the ballot boxes to elect the government that will lead the country for the next four years.

Today on May 11th, over 3.7 million registered Albanians will rightly turn to about 5,000 polling stations to decide on Albania's new Parliament and future governance.

And in this election for the first time, the diaspora, with about 245 thousand registered immigrants, also voted.

There are 11 political subjects or coalitions competing with 2 grand and 46 candidates for 140 seats in Albania's Parliament.

The strongest battle in these elections is between the two largest political forces, Edi Rama-led Socialist Party and Sali Berisha's Democratic Party.

For the sake of elections, the CEC, SPAK and the Prosecutor General have established a joint Task Force to ensure a calm election process.

Also, State Police have drafted a detailed plan of measures and trained members of police and specialists in investigating election crimes and preserving election sites.

A new electoral system -- which includes a combination of closed and open lists -- has been adopted for these elections.

There are 12 electoral areas in Albania, and the number of MPs for each area ranges from 3 mandates for the Kukes District to the largest number of mandates, to 37 for the District of Tirana.

In the ranking of the country, each electoral subject has run 46 names on the closed list and another 140 for the open list. They're distributed according to circuits depending on the mandates./Periscopi/