"Big Brother" for Albanian elections



The European Union and the United States of America kept their promise for what they had warned since a long time ago, for a strict monitoring of the June 23rd elections. An army of observers have been accredited at the Central Election Commission, 9000 in total, foreign and Albanian, and other requests are still being reviewed.

All 27 embassies of the European Union countries have been accredited at the Central Election Commission for observing the elections, even the embassies of the neighboring countries and Russia. The biggest number of observers comes from the United States embassy, with 68 in total. This embassy has also engaged its staff of the other embassies in the region for this process, a practice that has been followed by other embassies near Albania.

The list of observers is led by the diplomatic chiefs. The Ambassadors have asked to be accredited in all electoral zones, which means that they can move to any area that could become problematic during the process. The second person in charge at the United States embassy will observer in Fier, an area that the Embassy considers very important.

While the European Union embassies have focused their observers in three other districts: Tirana, Vlore and Durres.

OSCE and ODIHR are still increasing the number of requests for observers, who have been approved in this meeting. The Central Election Commission also approved 23 observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which is led by Luca Volonte. Wolfgang Grossruck, the Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will also be present. Grossruck has been considered in Albania as friend of Prime Minister Berisha, especially after the OSCEODIHR elections of 2009, when he was leading the observers.

Besides the high number of international observers, there is a record breaking number of local observers, around 8000 in total. The international media have also shown interest, wanting to be present on the electoral process of this Sunday, making this the most viewed of the last electoral processes.