State Election Commissioner Ilirjan Celibashi has shown the details of what model Albania is considering for the emigrants' vote. He stated that Kosovo's model is inappropriate for us due to lack of trust in politics.
Celibashi said that a model similar to the Scottish and Spanish is being evaluated for the immigrants' vote.
"The model applied in Kosovo would be inappropriate because it would not create all the confidence of all parties. That system is believed there, but in Albania, with this pronounced lack of trust that the parties have in each other, the Kosovo model would not find ground.
Voting in embassies would be almost impossible due to capacity. Voting by mail could be a solution and it also makes sense from a technical point of view that it can be done. One issue that can be considered is what costs are. The state will have to pay and in an estimate that we have made, for about 600-700 thousand, it has gone up to almost 40 million euros of the cost of this process.
We are considering another alternative, a combination of electronic voting, not electronic. The voter outside Albania will receive a printed ballot paper, will make all the notes there. This ballot paper will be encrypted and will be sent to the CEC. "More or less this model has been used in Scotland and Spain", said Celibashi in A2.
1.4 million eligible Albanians are thought to be living abroad, and for five years there has been no consensus on the registration of immigrants in a special register. The opposition, despite the internal conflict, has demanded that the CEC provide full infrastructure while there are divisions over how to vote.
There are three concerns raised by the opposition as to the registration, the addresses, the manner of voting and how the mandates secured by their votes will be calculated. The SP has asked the CEC to start work on issuing rules, while the opposition has been invited to the new electoral reform commission to address the OSCE / ODIHR recommendations.