The Commission for Appeals and Sanctions at the Central Election Commission decided to reject the request made by the Democratic Party to gather additional information to support their vote-rigging allegations in Durres.
CAS argued that the DP did not make any efforts to secure the evidence requested, while the party’s representative opposed the decision stating that “over 100 requests have been sent” to respective institutions.
The Commission underlined that in any case the information requested by the opposition is not “considered as evidence” according to civil procedures.
On the other hand, CAS acceded access to the DP to acquire information to retrieve further data from electronic identification devices and compare them with preliminary information on 300 citizens who have allegedly sold their vote.
The representative of the Democrats, Marash Logu, said the list could confirm one of the party’s main claims that “vote-buying has altered election results”.
The Democrats are seeking to nullify the election results and have the county vote again. Meanwhile, the Socialist Movement for Integration wants a recounting of several ballot boxes claiming that it has received the necessary threshold to secure a mandate.
The 136-vote difference in Durres, secured the Socialists a mandate claimed by SMI.
SP (50.25%) won Durres with 13.000 more votes, leaving behind DP (41.44%), and SMI (6.19%). The latter, despite getting 9.400 votes, did not secure a seat in parliament.
In the past weeks, CAS has reviewed similar claims for the county in Berat, Gjirokaster, and Vlora.
In Berat, 114 ballot boxes were reopened however without producing any changes on the distribution of the mandates, but it did tighten the difference between the SP and SMI by 58 votes.
The opposition is expected to take CAS decision to the Electoral College.
Moreover, CAS dismissed similar calls from the opposition to invalidate the election results in Vlora and Gjirokastra.
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