The number of diaspora voters who actually cast their ballots may be significantly lower than the figure registered with Albania’s Central Election Commission (CEC).

Although over 246,000 voters living abroad have registered on the CEC platform, not all of them may manage to vote, as ballots must be delivered by mail, hand to hand.

Besides those who may choose not to vote, or who cannot participate in the process due to objective reasons, a technical rule is expected to have a major impact:

According to the defined regulations, the envelope containing the ballot will be sent by the CEC via post, but must be handed directly to the registered voter. If the mail carrier fails to find the voter at home after three delivery attempts, the registered emigrant loses the right to vote.

This process, which costs €10 million, has been contracted to the international courier company DHL.

A similar situation occurred in Kosovo, where out of 105,000 registered diaspora voters, only 84,000 were able to cast their ballots in the February 14 elections.