From: Exit Staff
Albanians in six municipalities will be voting in today’s mayoral by-elections. Exit will bring you a running update of events as they happen.
Quick facts:
- Mayoral by-elections are happening in Durrës, Shkodër, Lushnje, Diber, Rrogozhine, and Vorë
- 654,538 Albanians are eligible to vote
- Mayors are expected to stay in office for roughly 16 months as the next local elections are scheduled for June 2023
- 18 candidates across three political forces are running for the six municipalities: The Socialist Party, the formal Democratic Party, and the House of Freedom Coalition
12:00 PM
- 13.97% of eligible voters have cast their ballots per the CEC.
11:30 AM
- US Ambassador Yuri Kim visits Durrës as voting is underway. With 262,019 eligible voters, Durrës is the biggest municipality up for grab in today’s elections.
10 AM
- Ilirjan Celibashi, head of the Central Election Commission, said they are monitoring the situation across all municipalities.
- According to Celibashi, voting is going well in most centers.
- He also confirmed that the bad weather and issues with the electronic voting devices had caused some delay in Durrës and Dibër, but there have been no major disruptions.
9:45 AM
- Incidents reported in Dibër, where commissioners from the House of Freedom coalition has accused a Socialist commissioner of recording voters’ names on their phone.
- Another incident was reported in Durrës where an HF commissioner punched a PD commissioner.
9 AM
- CEC reports that 3.41% of voters have cast their ballots
8 AM
- Snowfall causes power outages in several voting polls in Dibër.
7 AM
- Voting polls open in six municipalities.
- Vora constituents will get to use electronic voting for the first time.
