Irregularities in biometric identification, problems in electronic voting and accusations of manipulation of citizens’ votes through intimidation and vote buying, are the main claims of the opposition led by Sali Berisha, on the basis of which they do not recognize the results of the May 14th local elections.
In all his press conferences, Berisha has spoked of a three-phase action of the opposition, where at first evidence will be collected and complaints will be filed in the Sanctions and Appeals Commission, which will then be sent to international institutions for information.
However, a week after the local elections, only seven appeal requests have been submitted to the Central Election Commission.
According to official data, the “Together We Win” coalition has officially submitted only two complaints, regarding the elections’ result for the municipalities of Kuçova and Maliqi.
For the Municipality of Kuçova, where candidate Lefter Maliqi only lost by a few votes, the coalition claims that there was a discrepancy between the votes counted and those cast in almost every ballot box. As for the Municipality of Maliq, the coalition claims that ballot papers that did not have any problems were declared invalid.
Three small parties have submitted five complaints about the counting process. The Legality Movement Part in Tirana and Dira, the National Unity Party in Lezha and the Democratic Christian Alliance in Puka claim irregularities during the process of counting votes for the municipal councils.
