The last battle at the Electoral College?

The request opposes decision 1158 of the Central Election Commission for announcing the result of Tirana Municipality after opening 1793 ballot boxes, and the second is for declaring the elections as invalid in 284 voting centers.

This request was filed at the Electoral College on June 30th, after CEC refused to review it. When this request was presented at CEC, the judge of this case, Arben Ristani, argued that the competent institution for reviewing this appeal was not CEC, but the Electoral College, and that the request for calling these elections as invalid was made after the deadline had expired, because the decision was the continuity of a previous order issued by the Electoral College. But the Socialists underlined that the Electoral College had rejected the last decision of CEC.

Hence, the decision for opening the new boxes and also the result that came out of this action was a new decision of the Central Election Commission. The Socialists will defend the same argument in front of the Electoral College, which must decide if the deadline of the invalidation request had expired or not. If not, they must decide if the evidence presented by the Socialist Party will be sufficient for declaring the process in 284 voting centers as invalid.

The Socialists declared that this time, besides written proofs, they will also represent the video footages as manipulation evidence. If the Electoral College will accept the request of the Socialist Party, the invalidity of 284 voting centers will bring reelections for the Mayor of Tirana. But if the College will reject the request or the entire case, the effect will be the same: the summary table that shows DP candidate Basha with 93 votes ahead will remain valid.

An invalidity request has also been filed by the Party of Pensioners, which have sued both great parties. But the fate of this request will depend on the request of the Socialist Party. Meanwhile, the distribution of the mandates for the Tirana Municipal Council has remained unfinished.

This session will be led by Judge Astrit Kalaja. Besides him, part of this judge panel will be Judge Sashenka Jonuzi, who, together with judge Kalaja, was present in the two previous sessions of the Electoral College, on June 3rd and 13th. The other judges are Petraq Dhimitri, who was present on the session of June 3rd, and Marie Qiriazi and Dhurata Haveri, who were present on the session of June 13th.

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