After a series of campaign by major stakeholders including civil society, Albania’s new regulations will allow its diaspora for the first time to cast their ballots in the country’s May 11 elections.
This would be done without the need for them to return to their homeland to vote.
According to Albania’s Interior Minister Ervin Hoxha, 3.7 million of Albania’s 4.6 million citizens will have the right to vote, and already, 10,000 Albanians living in the diaspora have registered to vote, with analysts confirming that the diaspora numbers may make the election results impossible to predict.
The country’s Central Election Commission said that the registration of citizens living outside Albania will be done through the Electronic Registration Platform on the CEC mobile application or its official website. It is expected that many more members of the diaspora could sign up to vote before the portal closes.
Over 1 million Albanians live in the diaspora in countries like the US, Canada, Germany, and UK.
Source: Balkan Insight.