Does the Diaspora Decide the Elections? How Much Influence Will Their Vote Have?
The elections of May 11 this year will occupy a special place in the history of general elections in Albania. This is because it is the first time that the Albanian diaspora will have the same voice as Albanians within the country, in deciding who will lead Albania for the next 4 years.
The issue of whether the diaspora should vote or not has been on the discussion tables for years. However, only this year, they will have the right to vote for the first time, just like their compatriots in Albania. But how did the voting process for the Albanian diaspora begin?
The Central Election Commission (CEC) called on all emigrants to register on the Electronic Registration Platform (PER) from January 11 to March 4, in order to be included in the voter list from abroad and deregistered from the voter list within the country. After several requests and debates between political parties and the CEC, the registration deadline will be extended until March 9 for all those emigrants who had opened an account on the Electronic Registration Platform (PER) and whose request to vote was rejected by the system due to lack of documentation, or for other reasons.
According to data from the Central Election Commission, a total of 245,935 emigrants registered to vote in the May 11 elections. The distribution of ballots began on April 24, initially for voters in the Dibra and Berat districts living abroad and then for voters in other districts, while on April 17 the first 735 envelopes were to arrive in Albania, as it was a condition that the voter must submit it within 3 days of receiving it, in order for it to arrive in Albania.
All envelopes were distributed via paid mail by the CEC and included the return envelope, an instruction, and an envelope A containing an envelope B with the ballot paper inside.
Most of the envelopes with the diaspora vote have arrived in Albania. Meanwhile, any envelope that will arrive in the territory of our country after 19:00 will be considered invalid. The envelopes have been brought to the “Feti Borova” Sports Palace, near the Olympic Park, where the vote counting will also take place. Despite the fact that the voting for the diaspora has started before May 11, the counting of their votes will be done together with the votes cast within Albania, after 19:00 on May 11.
But how many electors have been approved by counties and states?
Since most Albanians are immigrants in Italy and Greece, the majority of those registered to vote in the May 11 elections are also from Italy and Greece. Specifically, about 37.1% or over 91 thousand of the registered voters are from Italy, 27.8% or over 68 thousand registrations were recorded in Greece, 10.4% or over 25 thousand in Germany, 8.4% or over 28 thousand from the United States of America, 7% or over 17 thousand from the United Kingdom and others.
What is striking from the data available from the Central Election Commission is that there is no shortage of immigrants who have registered from very distant countries. For example, 1 Albanian living in Madagascar is registered to vote in these elections, as well as 1 Albanian from Afghanistan, Venezuela, Barbados, South Korea, 3 from Guadeloupe, Panama, Chile and other countries.
On the other hand, in terms of the regions in Albania where emigrants have been registered, it turns out that emigrants from Tirana are the most numerous in number to vote, while smaller regions such as Kukës result in fewer emigrants who have shown interest in being part of these elections. Specifically, about 21.3% or over 52 thousand of the approved diaspora voters are from Tirana, 13.2% or over 32 thousand are from Fier, while Elbasan and Durrës have 10.2% or over 25 thousand. Dibra, Gjirokastra and Kukës have the smallest number of diaspora who will participate in the elections, with 9.6 thousand, 8.4 thousand and 3.9 thousand respectively.
According to calculations previously made by SCAN Television, the diaspora with the right to vote is around 1.5 million. From the registrations, we can say that out of 1.5 million emigrants with the right to vote, the participation of the diaspora reaches 18%, more or less the same as in other countries where the diaspora vote is consolidated.
How much influence will the diaspora vote have in determining the threshold of votes needed to win a parliamentary mandate? In Dibër, Korçë and Kukës, it is more difficult to win a parliamentary mandate. The threshold for these districts ranges from 14,200 – 14,700 votes, while the easiest districts are Shkodra, Lezha and Vlora.
As for the Tirana district, without the diaspora, the minimum number of votes needed to win a mandate is 12,596. With the diaspora, the race becomes more difficult, as the threshold of votes needed by political parties to win a mandate increases. In Tirana, 14,013 votes will now be needed to win a mandate, up from 12,596 without the diaspora.
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