How the DP is trying at all costs to put its own counters in prison

2025-06-06 19:26:00, Editorial CNA

Two members of the KAS decided to use the right reserved by the Electoral Code and requested the opening of all ballot boxes in the Tirana district and a recount of votes for both the subjects and the candidates on the open list.

The decision of the two members of the KAS, representatives of the DP, was made after they had voted against the opening of the boxes for preferential votes with the justification that the candidates were not legitimate for this request . On the other hand, the DP refused to sign the requests of its candidates by orienting the parallel vote against the opening of the boxes for preferential votes by its 2 representatives in the KAS. And this was done in all cases when candidates from the DP list requested a recount of preferential votes.

After this vote, the DP, through its representatives in the CEC, requested the inspection of the ballot boxes of the Tirana district. This request was rejected by the KAS as unsupported by evidence.
Immediately after this decision, 2 members of the DP requested the opening of all the ballot boxes of the Tirana district.
In all this chaos of refusals, requests and acceptances, it is difficult to understand what the DP is really asking for.

" Regarding the request for the examination of ballot boxes for the Tirana region, the KAS rejects it by a majority vote, but at the request of two KAS members, the examination of ballot boxes for the Tirana region will be carried out. Given that this process takes time, given that there are 1282 VCs, the date for the start of the recount and re-evaluation will be determined at another time where political parties have the right to appoint observers while the process will be examined by the CEC administration, so this session is suspended for the moment ", declared at the end of the session the rapporteur of the case, Ledio Braho.

Ledio Braho is a member of KAS, who together with Elvis Cefa requested the opening of the ballot boxes.
It is learned from DP sources that Ledio Braho and Elvis Cefa were summoned to the DP headquarters and were insistently asked to apply the right they have from the Electoral Code, to request the inspection of all ballot boxes in the Tirana district.
Apart from the costs of the process, for which the CEC must tender budget funds to organize the recount, the only ones at risk from this process are the DP counters.

Counters are historically people selected by the DP structures and as such are engaged in the process of counting and tabulating the results from each box.

Since 2015, the DP has often found itself in difficult conditions in finding volunteers to take over the counting. The same situation occurred in the May 11 elections.

But recounting votes can create problems for commissioners, who, if vote trafficking is proven, may face criminal provisions . If the recount yields different results, they become subjects of SPAK, as their actions can be classified as an electoral crime even in cases where they may be human errors due to fatigue. The Code does not describe what the margin of error is that is classified as human error.

They may risk being sent to SPAK. Of course, in cases where the results differ from the recount, both the DP and SP counters are sent to SPAK.
But the SP seems to be protecting its counters, while the DP, with the order given to its 2 members in the KAS, after barely finding the counters, is now insisting on sending them to prison./ CNA