In the 5th season of his “Flasim” (Let’s Talk) podcast in the “Weekly Reflections” section, Rama said that when the long-standing concession process of identity cards came to an end, the state took on a very big challenge. It was not another concession, but the creation of a state-owned company to create cheaper and better cards than the previous ones.

“Thus, the “Identitek” company was created, which fully faced this challenge and is currently committed to the new challenge of digital IDs, namely the transfer of the identity card to a mobile phone or computer and its functioning as a multifunctional and very convenient digital wallet directly from the phone,” Rama underlined.

The head of government stated that, “The EU is also moving in the same direction and has decided that 2027 will be the deadline for introducing digital IDs into the daily life of Europe and the daily activities of all EU citizens.” /k.s/j.p/p.s./

“Today, there are 466 thousand citizens with the right to vote who do not have a valid identity document, neither an ID card, nor a passport. The Albanian government extended the validity only for voters who live outside Albania, discriminating those who are in Albania”, said Bylykbashi.

He underlined that, “This discrimination is unconstitutional and endangers the right to vote of these 466,000 citizens who live in Albania, and on May 11 want to vote and express their constitutional right”.

“We ask the government to issue the normative act without delay and extend the validity of identity documents for electoral reasons only, so that these citizens on May 11 will have the opportunity to vote,” he said.

“We ask the CEC, as the supreme election body to strongly request the government so that these citizens will have the opportunity to vote,” Bylykbashi added.

“We also draw the attention of international mechanisms for election observation, such as the OSCE-ODIHR, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and any other international institution, to point at this violation of the rights of Albanians. This should be done now, immediately, so that on May 11 all Albanians have the right to express their opinion for change, to change this autocratic regime,” Bylykbashi emphasized. /p.s./

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) demanded proposed that an amendment allowing Albanian expats to cast their ballot in parliamentary elections using biometric documents from their host countries be included on parliament’s agenda.

Addressing a regular plenary session on Thursday, the Socialist lawmaker called on the opposition to stick to the agreement on changes to the country’s electoral code.

“We shouldn’t waste a new agreement and an initiative negotiated by the Central Election Commission and supported by the majority and the opposition,” he said.

The head of the Socialist parliamentary group urged opposition lawmakers to back the changes to the electoral code, saying the DP proposal to allow expatriates to vote using foreign IDs is unacceptable.

“A voting process without an identification document is unacceptable or an excuse to destroy this process. This would be very bad news for the Albanian diaspora and politics,” Peleshi stated.

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“We have prepared the amendment and we want to legally validate any biometric identification document issued to Albanian expats by authorities in the countries where they live. We would never accept depriving two thirds of the Albanian diaspora from voting,” Berisha said.

He claimed that the government’s refusal to allow them cast their ballots was “an unprecedented and unfounded discrimination act.”

“In this context, I would like to again invite, primarily the Central Election Commission to make official efforts and publicly announce its position, because enforcing the Constitutional Court decision is a constitutional obligation,” he said.

Berisha warned that the opposition would block any changes to the electoral code unless their demand is met and called on Albanian expats and the diaspora to prepare for powerful protests outside Albanian embassies across Europe and the world.

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