Albanian immigrants are demanding a chance to run in Albania’s presidential elections.

Presidential elections stirred a public debate in the past week, including a reaction from the members of the Diaspora for a Free Albania who wrote a letter to parliament speaker Lindita Nikolla.

In the letter, they express their disappointment and what see they see as discrimination against Albanians living abroad the part that they are denied from entering the presidential race.

Jurist Kristi Vako told Euronews Albania on Saturday that their requests fell on deaf ears.

“We have continuously called on the Albanian Parliament to consider the Diaspora in its decisionmaking related to elections, the appointment of the president, and other constitutional organs in Albania”, Vako said.

Accordingly, they are calling for a revision of Article 86/2 in the Constitution which stipulates that only individuals who have resided at least in the last 10 years in Albania are eligible candidates, something that takes this right away from some 1,7 million Albanian expats.