2023 Albanian local elections

2023 Albanian Local Elections

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Local elections were held on 14 May 2023 in Albania.^[1] Mayors and municipal council seats were being elected in each of Albania's 61 municipalities.

Background

The 2019 Albanian local elections were boycotted, leading to the Socialists running uncontested in 31 municipalities. Only Shkodër and Finiq were won by opposition candidates, with all other mayors being candidates of the Socialist Party.^[2] According to official figures, turnout in 2019 was 22.97% or 812,249 people.^[3] The opposition stated that, according to their calculations, only 534,528 people took part, which means that the turnout was 15.12%.^{[4][undue weight? – discuss]} The elections were declared as a "farce" by opposition leader Lulzim Basha at the time.^[5]

Sali Berisha and Ilir Meta officially met on 26 October 2022 to plan for the upcoming elections.^[6][7] Both Meta and Berisha planned to have primaries in order to select joint candidates for each municipality, while the Socialist Party planned to run alone without any electoral alliance.^[8] However, since the Democratic Party was split between Enkelejd Alibeaj and Sali Berisha, it was uncertain who would carry the name of the party on the ballot.^[9] Belind Këlliçi announced he would be challenging Erion Veliaj in Tirana as Berisha's candidate,^[10] while Alibeaj did not announce a candidate in Tirana.

On 25 January 2023, Berisha's agreement with Vangjel Dule was revealed. According to the agreement, the PBDNJ would run their candidates in Finiq, Dropull and Himarë.^[11] By the end of January, it was still not clear whether the PS would run alone or with a coalition.^[12] Edi Rama stated that his party had selected a candidate for every region besides Vlorë and Durrës.^[13]

Ilirjan Celibashi, the head of the Central Election Commission, stated that neither Enkelejd Alibeaj nor Sali Berisha were allowed to register their candidates as the Democratic party of Albania before the deadline was on 7 March, meaning that the PD would not be allowed to run in the upcoming local elections.^[14]

In February 2023, controversy formed around the alleged connections between prime minister Edi Rama and Charles McGonigal, who was believed to be connected with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and was also separately indicted for allegedly accepting payments from former Albanian intelligence agent Agron Neza.^{[15][16][17][18]}

On 3 March 2023, the Democratic Party of Albania was given to Enkelejd Alibeaj.^[19][20] Originally, the Tirana Courts had originally accepted Sali Berisha's appeal.^[21] However, on 11 March 2023, Alibeaj was not allowed to register the Democratic Party with the CEC, allegedly for lack of proper documentation. In fact, it appeared that Lulzim Basha was still the leader of the party, even though Basha had declared his resignation in March 2022. However, Basha had never finalized his resignation in any written source. Alibeaj announced he would appeal against the decision of the CEC.^[22]

Berisha's candidates were not allowed to register as the Democratic Party, but instead under the list of Ilir Meta's party. On 15 March 2023, Berisha and Meta announced that their coalition would be called Bashkë Fitojmë ("Together we win"). It would consist of the PBDNJ, the Freedom Party of Albania, Demochristian Party, and the majority of the PD.^[23] Several Alibeaj's candidates would ultimately resign or endorse Berisha's candidates.^{[24][25][26][27]}

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By-elections of March 2022

After the results of the 2019 elections, by-elections were announced on March 6, 2022, as at the time there was no elected mayor in Vorë, Dibër, Shkodër, Lushnjë, Rrogozhine and Durrës. Several candidates that had been elected in June 2019 had not taken office either due to their death, or they had been arrested on corruption charges.^[28][29]

Between the 2019 elections and the March 2022 by-elections, Sali Berisha had been expelled from the PD by the party's leadership. However, he had previously personally conducted a party congress in which participants had deposed the party leadership of Lulzim Basha.^[30][31]

In the partial elections of the aforementioned six municipalities, a candidate from the Democratic Party and a Berisha candidate ran alongside a candidate from the Socialist Party. The Berisha loyalist candidates ran under the coalition name Shtëpia e Lirisë ("House of Freedom").^[32][33] In all communities, House of Freedom candidates received significantly more votes than the official PD representatives. Berisha's candidate managed to win in Shkodër, while the rest of the municipalties were won by the Socialist Party.^[34]

In the three voting stations of Bruçaj, Ndrejaj and Palaj, small villages in the northern mountains of Albania, elections were not held due to bad weather from heavy snowfall causing power cuts.^[35]

Parties and coalitions

Polls

Tirana

Mayoral results

Every mayor participated, including prior ones from 2022. The results are as follows:^[37]

Mayoral results of follow-up by-elections

Municipal council results

All council seats were being elected.

Full results by party/coalition:

Reactions

Edi Rama and the PS was able to keep control on a majority of municipalities and thanked voters for entrusting him. However, the opposition claimed election misconduct, stating that they were not allowed to count ballots in every district. Berisha and other members of the opposition argued it was unfair to have given the opposition an odd amount of vote counters. Together We Win was only allowed to count ballots in 50% of the country.^[39] Vote buying was the biggest accusation from the opposition.^[40][41] Workers of every municipality had shown up on election day waiting outside every polling station.^{[undue weight? – discuss]}

Opposition groups also claimed that in the three districts that did use an electronic voting system, Vorë, Kamëz, and Elbasan, there were failures in the electronic identification system.^[42][43][44] Some workers also claimed that they voted for an opposition candidate, only for their vote to show up for the Socialist candidate.^[45] The CEC has argued that this is not possible. Several political groups of the opposition argued the electronic voting system violated the election codes.^{[citation needed]}

On 16 June 2023, the elected mayor for Kukës, Safet Gjici, resigned following a leaked sex tape in the municipal office.^[46] He was caught with a female worker giving him oral sex. He resigned effective immediately, which caused a by-election to be held.

The Council of Europe stated that the elections were "well-administered, lacked women as candidates and in administration, and lacked focus on local issues"^[47]

On 5 March 2024, mayor-elect of Himara Alfred Beleri, who had been arrested on 12 May 2023, two days before the election, was sentenced to two years in prison for alleged vote buying.^[48] The previous mayor, Jorgo Goro, continued to serve his term in the meantime, as Beleri was not allowed to complete his oath to be sworn in as mayor.

On 23 March 2024, Jorgo Goro was himself arrested by SPAK for corruption.^[49][50]

Notes

References