According to the latest data from the Central Election Commission, 1,544,478 people voted during the June 25 parliamentary elections, or 46.65%.
Compared to the 1,724,779 people that voted in 2013, 180,301 fewer votes were cast on Sunday, in spite of a population increase in the last four years. Voter turnout this year was on record low, most probably for a combination of reasons: the heat, the fact that it the celebration of the end of the Ramadan, and a general disillusionment with the Albanian political situation.
With 96% of the votes counted, we may report the following:
The PS wins with 733,168 or 48% of the votes in 2013, the PS won 713,407 votes, which means that the relatively small increase of around 3% of the share in votes has translated into a considerable increase in mandates. From 65 in 2013 to 74 in 2017.
The PD ranks second with 438,284 of the votes, or 29%. Compared with 2013, the PD won around 90,000 votes less. However, if we take into account that the current PD includes all the other opposition parties, including the PBDNj, PAA, PR, and PKD, the loss is much larger, around 140,000 votes. As the overall popularity of the PS did not increase significantly
In 2013, the PD won 50 mandates, while on Sunday it won 43.
The LSI, the third party in the country, managed to increase its number of mandates from 16 to 19, with a total of around 218,000 votes, or 14%. There has been a real increase since 2013 in the popularity of the party, with 21% more votes, but the large win of the PS means that LSI will have to spend the next four years in the opposition, in a role it has not yet clearly figured out.
In relative terms, the PDIU is the largest winner of the elections, with an increase of 57% in number of votes, from 44,957 in 2013 to more than 70,000 in 2017. In spite of the broadening of its support, it will have one mandate less in Parliament than in 2013, namely 3. This may be mainly attributed to the absence of electoral coalitions.
The PSD has been able to secure one mandate in Shkodra with around 10,000 votes, in the name of former PS candidate Tom Doshi. The party is not represented independently in the current parliament.
Meanwhile, the two “new” opposition parties, Gjergj Bojaxhi’s SFIDA and Ben Blushi’s LIBRA were unable to secure any mandate in Tirana or elsewhere. On a national level, LIBRA won 1.2% of the vote, and SFIDA 0.2%.
The next Parliament will therefore consist only of five parties: PS, PD, LSI, PDIU, and PSD. PR and PBDNj will cease to exist as parties with their own mandates, as their leaders have been absorbed into the PD.
