Albania Court Postpones Election Ruling

Lulzim Basha | Photo courtesy of Democratic Party

The Socialists stopped short of demanding a new election, instead asking the specialized court for election disputes to order the Central Election Commission, CEC, to hear their appeal regarding alleged irregularities in the election.

The CEC, which is controlled by the ruling Democrats of Prime Minster Sali Berisha, refused to hear the Socialist appeal last week after declaring Basha the winner for the second time in as many months.

If the court rules in favor of the opposition, the legal wrangling over the May 8 poll will return to the CEC, whose decision could be challenged again in the Electoral College. If the appeal is rejected, then Basha will be officially declared the winner of the Tirana mayoral race.

That race was considered the key battleground in the May 8 local elections, pitting Socialist leader and incumbent Mayor Edi Rama against former Interior Minister Lulzim Basha.

The current complaint before the court is the fifth since May 23, when the election commission declared Basha the winner following a controversial recount of stray ballots.

In the unofficial preliminary results, Rama held a razor-thin advantage of 10 votes. But after the CEC ruled that ballots voters had put in the wrong boxes could be counted, Basha emerged as the winner by 81 votes.

On June 13, the Electoral College annulled the election commission's May 23 decision. At the same time, it rejected the opposition challenge against the miscast ballots, which were deemed valid.

Following the ruling, the court ordered a recount of contested ballots in 368 ballot boxes. When the results were added to the final tally, Basha's lead had increased to 93 votes.

The CEC certified that result on June 25. By a 4-2 vote, it declared Basha the winner by 93 votes out of the quarter-million cast.

Earlier, the Electoral College had rejected two other Socialist complaints about the procedure used by the election commission to include the miscast ballots in the final tally.

But the Socialists have contested the latest recount as well, pointing to problems in several ballot boxes where security codes were different from those registered by counting centers.

There were also a number of paper ballots found outside the various envelopes inserted in ballot boxes, and instances where the number of voters did not match the number of ballots cast.