2023 Albanian Local Elections

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The Albanian local elections of 2023 took place on 14 May 2023 in Albania.^[1]

Background

In the 2019 Albanian local elections, the Albanian opposition had boycotted the elections leading to the Socialists running uncontested in 31 municipalities. Only Shkodër and Finiq were won by opposition candidates, with all other mayors belonging to the Socialist Party.^[2] According to official figures, the turnout 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] 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 the candidate to challenge Erion Veliaj in Tirana as Berisha's candidate,^[10] while Alibeaj did not announce his 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] Even though Taulant Balla claimed that the Socialists (PS) did not need any coalition, by the end of January it was not clear whether the PS would run alone or with a coalition.^[12] Edi Rama had stated that his party had selected every 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 Democratic Party (PD) would not be allowed to run in the upcoming local elections.^[14]

In February 2023, there was controversy 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 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]On 11 March 2023, however, Alibeaj was not allowed to register the Democratic Party by 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 Democratic Party of Albania.^[23] Several Alibeaj's candidates would ultimately resign or endorse Berisha's candidates.^{[24][25][26][27]}

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Partial elections March 2022

After the results of the 2019 elections on the President announced by-elections on March 6, 2022, as at the time there was no elected mayor in the six districts Vorë, Dibër, Shkodër, Lushnjë, Rrogozhine and Durrës. The candidates that had been elected in June 2019 in those communities could not take office because of criminal misconduct that had become known in the past or the candidate had died.^[28][29]

The election did not help at a time for the Democratic Party, which was involved in internal power struggles.^[30][31][32] Former party leader Sali Berisha was expelled from the party he helped found by the party leadership, but had previously personally conducted a party congress in which the participants had deposed the party leadership of Lulzim Basha.^[33][34] 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").^[35][36] In all communities, the Shtëpia e Lirisë candidates received significantly more votes than the official PD representatives. In Shkodër, Berisha's candidate won, while the rest of the districts were won by the Socialist party.^[37]

However, in the three voting stations of Bruçaj, Ndrejaj and Palaj, small villages in the northern mountains, elections were not held due to bad weather from heavy snowfall causing power cuts.^[38]

Parties and coalitions

Polls

Tirana

Mayor Elections

Every mayor participated, including prior ones from 2022. The results are as follows:^[40]

Partial Mayoral Elections in 2023

Council Seats

Each Council Seat was up for grabs in the election.

Full results by Party and Alliance during the council elections:

Reactions

Edi Rama was able to keep majority of the region and had thanked the voters for entrusting him. However, claims from the opposition stating that they were not allowed to count ballots in every district was unfair. Berisha and other members of the opposition argued it was not fair to have given the opposition an odd amount of vote counters. Together We Win was only allowed to count ballots in only 50% of the country.^[42] Vote buying was the biggest accusation from the opposition.^[43][44] Workers of every municipality had shown up on election day waiting outside every polling station.

Opposition groups also claimed that in the three districts that did use an electronic voting system in Vorë, Kamëz, and Elbasan there was some failure in electronic identification.^[45][46][47] Some workers also claimed that they would vote for an opposition candidate only for their vote to show up for the Socialist candidate.^[48] While this could be debated as CEC argued that this is not possible. The opposition continued to protest that this was happening in the three systems. Which many political groups of the opposition argued violated the election codes.

In Rrogozhinë Memolla had won with a narrow majority. Which had been seen controversial. When the final box from the Prison in Rrogozhinë in which 6 were expected to vote. However, 104 had voted. The Albanian CEC had come to an agreement that there will be a repeat in Rrogozhinë.^[49][50] As for Kukës on 16 June 2023 Safet Gjici resigned following a leaked sex tape in the municipal office.^[51] Where it was seen that a female worker had been giving him oral sex. He resigned effective immediately. Which will cause a repeat election in Albania for both municipalities.

The Council of Europe stated that the elections were "well-administered, lacked women as candidates and in administration, and lacked focus on local issues"^[52]