The Opportunity Party (centre-right), the Together Movement (left), and the NISMA–SHB (centre) alliance all entered parliament for the first time. They are critical towards the MAGA style PD party. I would argue this is a positive historic shift from the old PS-PD duopoly. (9/9)

Turnout was preliminarily reported to be 44.74%, but that includes the diaspora voters who did not register for mail voting. A total of 1,606,558 out of 3,713,897 voted. But the population of Albania is around 2.4 millions, so inland turnout could be around 80%, so quite high. (8/9)

The Central Commission (a partisan institution) has dismissed the claim for now, but the Democratic Party has indicated will gather more facts about the fraud. They see the OSCE report as vindicating their claims. (7/9)

Technical also problems arose from the mail ballot distribution. The PD alleges PS supporters in Greece stole diaspora ballots due to weak ID checks by DHL contractors. Ballots were allegedly completed and submitted without voter consent. (6/9)

For the first time, the Albanian diaspora could vote by mail. Over 200,000 voted, around 12% of the electorate. Initially backed by the opposition, diaspora voting became controversial after reports emerged of public employees being pressured to register their relatives. (5/9)

Aside from the arrests, the main right wing opposition, the Democratic Party (PD) under Sali Berisha (leader for 34 years), suffered from the their internal splits/turmoil. New parties also participated in the new elections, brining a new dynamic to the party system. (4/9)

The OSCE says the PS benefited from state resources, media bias, and pressure on public employees, blurred lines between state and party. The vote was mostly calm, but observers reported cases of limited ballot secrecy, access issues, and manipulative online campaigning. (3/9)

Albania’s 2025 elections were both historic and controversial. The election unfolded amid major corruption scandals. Ilir Meta (a Berisha ally) was arrested; Berisha himself had been under house arrest. Tirana’s PS mayor Erion Veliaj was also detained for corruption. (2/9)