For the first time, two separate voter lists will be used: one for residents within Albania and another for those voting from abroad. For the first time ever, Albanians living abroad can vote from their countries of residence.

In the May 11 polls, the country’s 11th general election since the fall of its communist regime in 1991, according to the Ministry of Interior, a total of 3,713,761 Albanians are eligible to vote, including 114,642 first-time voters.

A total of 3 027 inmates and detainees will be also allowed to exercise their constitutional right and cast their vote in special polling stations inside 21 prison facilities across Albania.

The final voter list was compiled under the supervision of Central Election Commission’s auditors, going through several stages in accordance with the President’s decree, through the publication of three preliminary extracts of voter registry. According to data from the central election body, 1,081 voters have been excluded because of the decriminalization law.

Voting will take place 7 am-7 pm across 5,225 polling stations. According to Central Election Commission rules, no one may vote after the closing time of the polling stations, except for voters already on the queue of a polling station at the time of closing.

For the first time in Albania’s post-communist history, emigrants have been allowed to vote by mail from the countries where they live, without having to travel to the country.

According to official data from the Central Election Commission, 245,935 Albanians living outside Albania are registered to vote. After the expats’ registration via the Electronic Registration Platform (PER), the Central Election Commission (CEC) has sent the ballots and other accompanying materials via postal carrier to the address they declared upon registration. The courier costs for returning the ballot papers were all covered by the Albanian state.

The voting and ballot counting processes are being closely monitored by short-term and long-term local and foreign election observers.

Ambassador Lamberto Zannier is the head of the OSCE/ODIHR observation Mission. The international observation mission for May 11 parliamentary elections in Albania is a joint mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the European Parliament (EP).

The mission totals 365 observers from 47 countries, composed of 238 ODIHR-deployed experts and long-term observers, 97 parliamentarians and staff from the OSCE PA, 22 from PACE, and 12 from the EP.

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Berisha accused the Socialist parliamentary majority for voting “dozens of laws and decisions that further impoverished Albanian citizens.”

“For the first time in the 34-year history of post-dictatorship Albania, you approved dozens of laws and decisions that further impoverished Albanian citizens,” Berisha stated.

He claimed that the majority has approved decisions “to multiply wages of lawmakers and high-level officials, while allocating only 16 million euros for over 80 000 retired people.”

According to him, these decisions have further deepened the gap between the poor and the wealthy people in the country.

Berisha said that May 11 elections would mark the end of “the narcocracy in Albania.”

He pledged that the opposition will approve what he termed “the compassion package” to eradicate extreme poverty in Albania, if elected in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“The state budget delivery will be reversed in three months’ time. A living minimum of 200 euros will be set. Minimum wage will be increased to 500 euros, whereas average wage will edge up to 1200 euros,” he promised.

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