2019 Albanian local elections

rdf:langString 2019 Albanian local elections

rdf:langString June 2019

rdf:langString background, disputes over the date of the elections, protests, and results

rdf:langString 2019 Albanian local elections were a set of highly contested elections in Albania held on 30 June 2019.Voters were asked to elect mayors, municipal council members, municipal unit mayors and municipal unit members. These were the second local elections in Albania since substantial administrative reforms legislated in 2014 reduced the number of municipalities in the country to 61. The Central Election Commission of Albania was responsible for administrating the elections. Following months of political crisis, the opposition parties refused to participate in the election accusing the government and the Prime Minister of vote buying, voters intimidation and links with criminal organizations that led to a Socialist Party majority in the previous elections. The President had originally postponed the election date to October 13th after many protests organized by the opposition parties, some of which turned out violent, but it was not accepted by the government and the CEC, which decided to continue with the process on the original date. The Socialists ran uncontested in 31 municipalities, facing smaller parties and independent candidates in the other 30 municipalities, including the newly formed Bindja Demokratike, resulting in an absolute win by the Socialists in all municipalities except Finiq, and resulted in the Socialists gaining the most votes in all city council elections except Finiq and Pukë. In most areas, turnout was low, ranging between under 10% in Shkodra to around 38% in Librazhd. Only one municipality, Pustec, was outside of this range, and had a turnout of over 50%.