The Albanian local elections of 2011 took place on 8 May 2011 in Albania. Electors were asked to elect their municipality's mayor, municipal council members, municipal unit mayor, and municipal unit members. The elections were administrated by the Central Election Commission of Albania. Only 9 of the 384 winning candidates were women.

Parties and coalitions

The two coalitions taking part in the 2011 local elections were the Coalition of the Citizen (Albanian: Aleanca për Qytetarin) formed by the Democratic Party of Albania and Coalition for the Future (Albanian: Aleanca për të Ardhmen) formed by the Socialist Party of Albania.

Process

In total, 7882 voting centers in the country opened at 7:00 am and closed at 8:00 pm. The voter turnout countrywide was about 50.9%.

Tirana election

Polls

The Socialist Party-led Coalition of the Future published a poll that predicted the electoral victory of Edi Rama in Tiranë, while TV Klan, an Albanian private channel published a poll of the Gani Bobi Institute predicting a victory of Lulzim Basha.

Voting process

The counting process lasted 6 days and was marked by mutual stalls from parties involved, and the intervention of most prominent foreign Ambassadors accredited to the country for moving the process forward. On 14 May 2011, after the last ballot box determining the result for the Tirana election was counted, it revealed that Edi Rama, the Coalition for the Future candidate was ahead by only 10 votes from Lulzim Basha, the candidate of the Coalition for the Citizen. Thus, the pre-eliminary result pointed to Edi Rama as the winner of the Tirana Mayoral election. The tally was awaiting final certification by the KQZ.

Recount and final decision

The latter declared that ballots inserted on the wrong ballot boxes should have been counted as well. Indeed, voters were asked to elect local city, and municipal unit mayors as well. Thus, KQZ overrode local KZAZ's decisions and started to count all invalid ballots cast on the wrong ballot boxes. The final tally revealed that Lulzim Basha won the Tirana race by 81 votes more than Edi Rama. Thus, the winner for the Tirana mayoral chair was declared to be Lulzim Basha. Edi Rama filed an appeal at the Electoral College to overthrow the result and re-instate the 14 May tally that pointed to him as the winner of the election. All instances rejected Rama's appeal, and on 25 July 2011 Lulzim Basha was sworn in as the new Mayor of Tirana.

Turnout percentages

The voter turnout in the municipalities (bashki) was:

Results

Berat County

Dibër County

Durrës County

Elbasan County

Fier County

Gjirokastër County

Korçë County

Kukës County

Lezhë County

Shkodër County

Tiranë County

Vlorë County

Countrywide results for Municipal Assemblies

Number of votes and percentage for each subject countrywide.

Reactions

• Sali Berisha, prime minister and leader of the Democratic Party of Albania, declared that the elections went well.
• The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe declared the electoral system needs immediate reforms.

Partial Elections

Partial elections were held in September and November 2013 for mayors of the following communes: Korçë in Korçë District, Dardhas in Korçë District, Rrethina in Shkodër District, and Karbunarë in Lushnje District.

See also

• Coalition for the Future
• Coalition for the Citizen
• Politics of Albania
• Parliamentary Elections of 2013
• Partial Local Elections of 2013

External links

• Results in Real Time
• Central Election Commission Archived 13 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
• Balkan Insight, Albania 2011 Local Elections: Key Facts, 13 April 2011
• Albania, Local Elections, 8 May 2011: Preliminary Statement, OSCE-ODIHR Accessed 27 May 2011

References