The elections were seen as a test to whether the country has embraced democratic standards and as a stepping stone to the country’s admittance to the European Union. Albania submitted its application to join the EU last April right after gaining membership in NATO.
Voters turned out in big numbers to cast their ballot for what seems to be a battle between two biggest parties, the governing Democrats and the challenging Socialists. Many of the international organizations monitoring the election agreed on one point, that while there were improvements compared to previous years, the standards had not been met and many irregularities were recorded.
Problems cited included irregularities in procedures and a widespread 'family voting.' Family voting is a an exploitable loophole in the election rules that allows vision impaired, usually elderly, voters to have an accompanying 'family member' cast their on their behalf.
In an interview with the BBC Albanian Service, Jens-Hagen Eschenbacher, spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said, that the OECD has "observed problems and violations, in particular during the campaign, for example, pressure on voters and the use of state resources for electoral purposes.”
Concurring with these findings, the U.S. Ambassador to Albania issued a statement saying that although the International Election Monitoring Mission's preliminary report characterizes these elections as "an improvement over past practices," the report "also expresses concern over remaining flaws in the process.” As the ballot counting continues, the international monitors’ duty is far from over.
There were 100 ballot boxes left to be counted as of Wednesday night, but there is still no clear winner. The Democrats declared they had won the election obtaining 71 out of 140 parliamentary seats on Wednesday but this has not been confirmed by election commission officials. According to News 24, an all-day TV news channel in Albania, Socialist leader, Edi Rama, accused the Democrats on Wednesday of interfering with the counting process, stating that the race is not over.
The confusion is expected to clear up by the end of the week when the remaining ballots are counted and the election commission declares the winner.
Erkanda Bujari is a free-lance reporter who monitors and reports on the events of the Albanian communities worldwide.