Election results in Berat have not changed after the Central Election Commission finished recounting 114 ballot boxes on Friday. The Socialist Party (PS) will keep 5 parliament seats, the Democratic Party (PD) 2, and the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) none.
It comes after the Committee of Complaints and Sanctions at the CEC had denied opposition’s request for repeat elections on grounds of extensive rigging of ballots, but decided to recount ballots in some centers.
The recount gave the LSI 15 more ballots than the original results. The party had fallen short by 77 of the ballots required to get one seat, which it would have taken from the PS. About 5,300 ballot papers were found to be invalid in Berat.
The ballots of PS and PD were reduced by 20 and 9 after the recount. No changes in the overall distribution of parliament seats were made in this district.
The LSI said they will appeal the decision to the Electoral College.
Opposition requests for repeat elections have been denied for three districts, while other requests related to 6 more districts are still being reviewed. The opposition has requested repeat elections in 9 of the 12 electoral districts in the country, claiming extensive rigging of ballots by the government.
