The survey conducted by Euronews Albania and the prestigious company MRB published on the 19 of April came very close to the actual election results.
According to the survey, the Socialists would receive 48.5% of the votes on a country scale, officially the SP 48.68%.
The survey projected that the Democrats would receive a 41.5% share of the vote. After all the ballots were counted, the official result confirmed by the Central Election Commission was that the DP got 39.4% of the votes.
A panel of experts will discuss tonight the survey projections’, as well as other issues concerning the elections.
One distinctive feature noted after the official results came out was the ample number of votes that were invalid, estimated at over 83.000.
Blendi Çeka, an expert on elections, said that according to him this might be due to simple human error.
“From the way that the distribution of invalid votes is being seen, it is without a doubt a matter of human error”, said Çeka.
Blendi Çeka shtoi gjithashtu se duhet verifikuar nëse mund të ketë raste që votat janë bërë të pavlefshme në mënyrë të qëllimshme nga komisionerët.
According to the deputy mayor of Tirana, Arbjan Mazniku, most of the invalid votes were cast for the Socialists.
“The majority of the invalid votes were of the Socialist Party because the SP conducted an open campaign”, he stated claiming that this led to the loss of around 4 parliamentary seats.
“What we can say with certainty is that the result of the Socialist Party would have been 78 mandates. We would have had one more mandate in Dibra, Tirana, and Elbasan”, Mazniku said.
The State Election Commissioner Ilirjan Celibashi made a guest appearance on Ilva Now to give his input on what led to a large number of invalid ballots at the general polls.
“The CEC engaged, unlike never before, in a massive informational and educational campaign for voters, so only he/she who was not interested in learning how to fill in the ballot could have not understood”, explained Celibashi.
The head of CEC said that preliminary results were announced within 48 hours and declared that tomorrow we’ll have the official results on the candidates.
Responding to claims made by the opposition on electoral fraud, the State Commissioner said that on election day there are “no indications that the integrity of the vote had been undermined”, and added that “everything else is beyond the responsibility of CEC”, referring to vote-selling/buying allegations.
Neritan Sejamini host of “Me Pak Fjalë”, a weekly show on Euronews Albania, said that the Democratic Party must end once and for all this history of “creating fictitious coalitions” as well as “establish its own identity”.
“I hope that the DP brings an end to these stories of creating fictitious coalitions and keeping afloat parties that do not give anything in return,” stated Sejamini. “Now, the Democratic Party must create its own identity, based on its own ideas and strengths and without being dependent on coalitions”.
