European Forum

Basha new mayor of Tirana

On 27 June the Albania’s Central Electoral Commission declared that with four votes in favour and two against, Lulzim Basha of the Democratic party of Albania is the winner of the May 8 race for the capital's mayoralty with a 93 vote advantage out of a quarter-million. The Tirana poll was considered the key battleground of the May 8 local elections, pitting Basha against the opposition leader and incumbent Tirana mayor, Edi Rama. The Socialists however are contesting the commission's ruling and warned that they will ask the Electoral College to annul the poll because the Socialist Party believes that the victory for the May 8 poll goes to Edi Rama.

Within five days, the Socialists are expected to lodge a compliant with the Electoral College, a specialized court for election disputes. The new complaint before the court would be the fourth after the election commission on May 23 initially declared Basha the winner, following a controversial recount of stray ballots. The recount gave Basha a lead of 81 votes out of a quarter-million over Rama, who had a razor-thin margin of ten ballots in the unofficial preliminary results, before the stray ballots were added.

On June 13 the Electoral College ruling annulled the election commission's May 23 decision, which declared Basha the winner in Tirana. At the same time, it rejected the opposition challenge against the miscast ballots, which were deemed as valid. Following the ruling, the court ordered a re-evaluation of contested ballots in 368 ballot boxes, whose results were added to the final tally, giving Basha a lead of 93 votes. Earlier the Electoral College had rejected two other Socialist complaints about the procedure used by the election commission to include the miscast ballots in the final tally. However the Socialists have contested the latest recount as well, pointing to problems in several ballots boxes, where security codes were different from those registered by counting centers or where paper ballots were found outside the various envelopes inside the ballot box.

The May 8 local elections were considered as key for the country’s EU future, following a two-year political crisis which has stopped the reform process dead in its tracks. However, after a peaceful and quiet election day, the row over the miscast ballots has heightened the political climate once again, adding to Brussels’ doubts over the country’s EU future. 

Sources: Balkaninsight, Silobreaker, Photo: Flickr erjkprunczyk