Albania’s Parliament has greenlit a major shake-up to the country’s Electoral Code—ensuring that overseas voters won’t have to fork out a single penny to cast their ballot.
The amendments, passed with a landslide 108-0 vote, mean the state will foot the bill for returning diaspora votes in the upcoming elections. The changes take effect immediately, with funds set to be allocated for the process.
While the opposition pushed for expat voting with foreign documents, the proposal didn’t make the cut—but there’s still hope. The matter is now in the hands of Albania’s Central Election Commission (KQZ), which could find a workaround.
New deadlines and counting rules
The clock is ticking faster for political parties, too. The new rules move up the deadline for candidate registration to March 12—ten days earlier than before—to give KQZ more time to prepare and ship ballots overseas.
In a big win for the Democratic Party (PD), the diaspora vote count will now be handled only by political appointees. The five-member counting panel will have two members from the parliamentary majority, two from the opposition, and a jurist secretary chosen through an open application process.
More time to challenge voter lists
Albanian expats also have more breathing room to fight for their right to vote. The deadline for challenging their inclusion in the voter list has been extended to 30 days before the election—previously, they had only seven days to make their case in court.
Campaign finance shake-up
Parliament also widened the war chest for political campaigns. Candidates on open lists now get more TV airtime, capped at 140 minutes per broadcaster.
On party finances, the Socialist Party (PS) pushed through a rule limiting campaign spending to five times the highest state funding received. Individual candidates, however, can self-finance their campaigns up to 3 million leks.
This marks the second major political consensus between the ruling Socialists and the opposition Democrats on electoral reform, following key summer 2024 amendments.
