Deputy State Election Commissioner Lealba Pelinku commented the progress of the May 14th local election process, widely criticized by both the government and the opposition.
Speaking to Euronews Albania on the opposition’s claims of manipulation of electronic voting in the municipality of Kamza and the conduct of an international investigation into the equipment, Pelinku answered: “The Central Election Commission has the obligation to be transparent. What I think is the guarantee that the Electoral Code provides in its determinations, is the post-election verification. This was the technology used in the last two elections. Despite the fact that there was no contestation, the CEC has the obligation to carry out the post-election verification, randomly selecting a certain percentage of the devices and verifying them. But we have a new context. We have had a ten-fold increase in voting centers where this technology has been applied. Given the high number of claims raised by the parties in relation to the past processes, I think that the CEC has no other way but to be transparent about these claims. When I talk about transparency, the impartiality of this verification would ensure the integrity of the verification process.”
Numerous cases were reported during election day, with citizens complaining of delays with the electronic identification equipment. Government officials called it “a spectacular failure of the CEC”, suggesting that the institution should have taken precautions to avoid it and not send voters away until the equipment became functional again.
The opposition, on the other hand, claimed that the electronic voting was rigged and warned an international investigation into the equipment used on election day.
