The State Election Commissioner, Mr. Ilirjan Celibashi and Deputy Commissioner Mrs. Lealba Pelinku received in a meeting the Head of OSCE Presence, Ambassador Vincenzo Del Monaco, who was accompanied by the Electoral Reform Advisor, Mr. Florian Hobdari.

Commissioner Celibashi informed the Ambassador regarding April 25, 2021 elections, highlighting two priority issues, such as the implementation of technology in elections and voting from abroad of citizens living outside the territory of the Republic of Albania. According to Celibashi “ they are complicated processes and we do not have such experiences in Albania. Currently we have finalized the detailed technical criteria for technological projects, whereas regarding the immigrant voting, the Working Group is finalizing the detailed report to assess the options and methods of voting from abroad”. 

 Mr. Celibashi stated that these are issues which are complicated from the technical point of view, but what is more important is the trust of citizens and the stakeholders in the process. The Commissioner guaranteed that in order to provide full transparency, there will be a broad consultation with all the actors involved in the election process, not only regarding the implementation of technology and immigrant voting, but on every activity of the CEC.

Both sides shared ideas regarding concrete proposals where the cooperation between the CEC and OSCE will focus, such as : the training of election administration, voters’ education, people with disabilities, marginalized groups, studies and research of other countries on the voting held during the pandemics and other issues.