After scoring one of the deepest defeats, with only seven municipalities won in the local elections (out of 61), Sali Berisha came out to comment on the result.

The former prime minister, co-leader of the “Together We Win” coalition alongside Ilir Meta, declared that Albanian citizens were forced to vote under pressure.

Berisha emphasized that the OSCE-ODIHR report on the elections highlighted the problems that, according to him, altered the result.

“I appreciate the OSCE-ODIHR report and that of local and regional authorities, who showed that Albanian citizens did not vote freely. This is the keyword of these elections. Edi Rama, with all kinds of pressure, changed the will of the citizens, in an unconstitutional and illegal way. The report, although preliminary, points to the major problems of these elections, starting with the state electoral machinery as a destructive monster of the electoral process. It underlines the massive vote buying, and other pressures done by the mafia administration, more present than ever in the polling stations and the voting process. Attempts to extract any half-phrase from the honorable representatives of the most prestigious observers in Europe (OSCE-ODIHR), failed,” declared Berisha.

Asked by journalists if he will resign, Berisha chose to answer by saying that he “will never bow down to crime”.

“Shkodra voted under total invasion. If you or anyone else thinks Sali Berisha will retreat in the face of crime, then you see your ear without looking in the mirror. Never, I will not back down before state and non-state crime gangs. Shkodra is the ugliest example, where citizens voted under the siege of Rama’s criminals. I’m sure the citizens of Shkodra will not accept the power of the crime,” said Berisha.