The Albanian Central Election Commission has refused the opposition Democratic Party (PD) requests that the CEC be the one to gather information from public institutions in Shkodër and Durrës to be used as evidence in support of their complaints over the April 25 elections.
On Monday, the Committee of Complaints and Sanctions at CEC decided that the PD should have attempted to acquire the information on its own. They added that, in any case, the required information does not amount to evidence, despite PD’s claims.
The main opposition party had asked the CEC that public institutions in Shkodër and Durrës provide information regarding 19 items which, they claim, would support their complaints of vote rigging.
The CEC argued that the institutions would have needed to produce specific statistics and materials in accordance with the PD’s request, which would have ultimately been irrelevant for the purpose of the CEC’s review of the former’s complaints.
Last week, the CEC refused to repeat elections in three districts – Berat, Gjirokastër, and Vlora. A partial ballot recount in Berat did not change the final distribution of parliamentary seats.
The Democratic Party is expecting CEC decisions over their request to repeat elections in 6 other districts.
