The Regulatory Commission approved the rules for voting procedures from abroad.  

In the act approved today, there are taken into consideration general principles, which are the pillars where voting procedures from abroad will be based, and general rules defined in the Law regarding the process of voting from abroad, voting documentation, and documentation guidelines addressed to voters from abroad, as well as special rules related to election working documentation sent to voters abroad.

The method of storing and administering the election documentation sent by the voter, the rules related to the supervision and monitoring of the voting process of Albanian citizens who vote from abroad are defined, to ensure transparency and access of all parties, in every preparatory step or implementation of the voting process from abroad.

The Regulatory Commission decided to send to the voters from abroad :

1. Election documentation consisting of:

a) Ballot paper.

b) The envelope where the ballot is inserted.

c) Guidelines containing clarifications for the voter to fill in the ballot paper, clarifications on the procedures for returning the ballot from the voter to the Central Election Commission, as well as other information related to the voting process.

d) The outer envelope where the envelope containing the ballot is placed.

1. The envelope, where the ballot is inserted, to be the same size and color for all voters.
2. The election documentation, that is sent to voters from abroad, to be prepared by the CEC.

Meanwhile, the voting procedure will be:

1. The voter who has received the election documentation from the CEC completes the ballot by making the relevant mark according to the instructions sent by this institution. Filling in the ballot paper is done individually.
2. After completing the ballot, the voter places it in the ballot envelope sent by the CEC. Only the ballot paper and no other document is placed/inserted into the ballot paper envelope.
3. No type of writing is allowed on the envelope of the ballot paper.
4. The ballot paper envelope, which contains only the ballot, is placed in the outer envelope sent to the voter by the Central Election Commission.

On this envelope, the CEC will place/stick the Unique Registration Code of each voter in PER. The Voter’s Unique Code is automatically generated by PER and contains the voter’s first and last name, the state where the ballot paper was requested to be sent, as well as the county where the civil status register is in the Republic of Albania. The Voter’s Unique Code is also reflected in the form of a Barcode, or QR Code. Once generated by PER, the Unique Code becomes available to every voter from abroad. When the envelope sent by the CEC arrives to the voter at the declared address abroad, the voter will confirm receipt of the envelope in PER.

5. The outer envelope on which the Voter’s Unique Code is placed, which contains the envelope containing the ballot paper, is inserted into the postal service operator’s envelope, and mailed to the address of the CEC.
6. It is recommended to send the election documentation from the voter to the CEC through a postal service that enables tracking of the shipment. The voter must ensure that the election documentation is sent to the CEC within a time limit that allows it to arrive in the Republic of Albania by 19:00 on the day of the elections.

The election documentation is sent through a postal service that enables the tracking of the election material from the CEC to the voter and vice versa, and is sent to the voter from abroad individually to the address declared by him or her in PER.

The ballots sent by the voters will be forwarded from the collection point/points of the postal service operators at the entrance to the territory of the Republic of Albania to the designated storage facilities of the CEC at a certain time of the day, every day .