Update: you can read my review of election day events here.

Update: follow the vote count here.

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Lac: Albanian and Kosovar media and NPR are reporting that there has already been one election related killing. This morning in the town of Laç, One was killed and 1 was wounded in an argument that, according to Albanian TV news, started some days ago over the hanging of political posters. It was a gun battle and the person who did the killing was the vice mayor (with democratic party) of Laç. The person killed was a member of LSI, part of the Socialist opposition coaliton.

However you should know that the city of Laç is not at all representative of the rest of the country. In fact, Laç is known for gun violence and violence in general. This reputation goes back even to the “time of Hoxha” or when the Stalinist government was running Albania.

In fact, the Peace Corps volunteers who were placed in Lac in 2012 had to be moved to other sites in Albania because of the risk of their being a victim of violence was unacceptable.

So, is this a sign of trouble to come? I say no.

Laç is also known for being fiercely Catholic, defending their church during communism from the most atheist government the world has ever known.

There was another incident outside of Lac. see below.

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Albania news is reporting that exit polling ,which is completely legal and independent of the government, is being prohibited in a few voting locations in Tirana, Saranda, Ksmail, Berat, Fier and Vlore. These are all very Southern cities besides Tirana. This is not a good sign given the north-south democratic-socialist divide which in 1997 became a civil war also the fact that the Socialist coalition has withdrawn from the national voting commission in protest.

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in Elbasan and Korca there are reports of voter intimidation. “Toughs” are standing in the doors of voting centers.

Albania news is reporting the Mayor of Korca himself is intimidating voters in a voting center.

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Maqellara (northern Abania near my house) Someone’s passport and ID was taken from him with force when waiting to vote.

Selisht and other Diber villages (near me in the north) people are “family voting” (one person votes for his whole family) which is not allowed but a long standing tradition.

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Yesterday somewhere in the North, a hydro election power plant is having trouble and the power was out. As a result a voting center was not set up. These “surprise” power outages during elections are not unheard of in Albania.

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In Fier there is confirmed report by the KQZ of voter intimidation by an LSI (socialist coalition) candidate in one voting location.

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In Kukes there are reports of a few people (7-8) from Kosovo voting for PD. (including one Kosovar politician who bragged about it on Twitter)

(Kosovo and Albania are the same ethnic group and Kukes and Kosovo are especially close given their proximity and the heroic efforts of Kukes to take care of Kosovar refugees in 1998-1999.)

Reports say that there has been a large increase in people coming from Kosova (which is normal because Kosovars go to Albanian beaches on the weekend) Possibly people wanting to vote illegally, tho.

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Elbasan, in village of Peqind two were caught with several large weapons in their car.

Also there is one report of people taking and destroying a couple Identity cards.

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Gjirokaster and Tepelene – a shortage of voting materials?

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More violence in Lac . Quick translation:a Top Channel news camera crew recorded people saying that only people with the PD coalition could vote at a voting center in Sanxhak village. Then the group completely destroyed the camera. Kosovo TV confirms the story.

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Peshkopi (my home) everything is going well 🙂

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Lezhe no problems… besides Lac

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Lushnje – no problems

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Apparently the Prime Minister and his wife were the first people to vote today. No word on whom they voted for. Saliu’s voice sounds worn out from campaigning.

Update: Saliu voted for himself!

Saliu condemns all intimidation of media, referring to the incident in Lac.

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exit poll in albanian is “exit poll.”

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Bamir Topi, independent and perhaps most popular politician in Albania, condemned the violence in Lac and other problems, calling them ” products of old politics” and “wild politics.”

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EU and other foreign observers are also condemning the violence… I wonder if they realize how Lac is not representative of Shqiperi and that all Albanians know that Lac is dangerous.

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Reports of voter intimidation in one location in Tirana.

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General problems being reported today :voting without ID cards, insufficient voting ballots, family voting, people not finding their names on voting lists and not being allowed to vote.

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KQZ reports: 2 Voting centers… somewhere didnt catch the location… ex-deputy (like a congress person) of the region with other people came to voting centers to intimidate. The were told how “turp” shameful it is for an ex-deputy to do this. they eventually left.

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It is hot in Albania, there is no AC, and its lunch time. Nothing will happen for a while.

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Gramsh – Voters prevented from voting at one center. Another polling station opened late.

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an Elbsasan fshati: PD voter intimidaton.

Also near elbasan: Lack of a PR voting commissioner lead to a conflict in one voting center

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Illiteracy among voters is an issue (for which Enver Hoxha is rolling in his grave) because family voting isn’t allowed but those who are illiterate can delegate someone to help them.

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Shkoder: Jozefina Topalli, with PD and the most powerful woman in the country, had a cute-gasm when a couple who are about to get married came into a voting center all dressed up for their wedding.

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KQZ is about to give a meeting regarding the election so far. still waiting…

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Himare: Few voters

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Durres: absolutely no problems reported

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LSI is claiming the LSI guy killed in Lac was innocent. Spokeswoman on the verge of crying. A very good performance 5/5

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Permet, incident in which voting was interrupted by a party member and police who thought the process was unfair.

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Kombinat Neighborhood in Tirana: 3 conflicts in front of voting centers over Confusion over names on lists. Police don’t want to release details.

Another conflict lead to 20 minutes interruption voting.

One threat against the KQZ commissioner at a voting center.

Some people trying to vote with false ID cards

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KQZ meeting is pretty heated with people questioning their legitimacy.

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Berati: Someone caught trying to take cell phone photos of their votes which is not allowed. They were told this means their vote cant be counted. I suppose to prevent vote buying.

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Burrel: no issues

Mat: no issues

Bulqize: no issues

Gjorice siperme: 2 hour delay in voting in the morning

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dardane (?) didnt understand the name maybe: 2 incidents False ID cards. conflict lead to 30 minute delay in voting.

Armed person showed up at a voting center.

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2 hours left in voting, less than half of voters have voted.

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Fier: Levani village: Roma people having trouble reading because they don’t know how to read.

for some reason KQZ at one center signed all the votes for a while because they didn’t know not to. the votes will count anyways but this lead to an interruption in voting.

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Socialist party: “vote for Lezhe, vote for Lac” trying to play up the fact that the guy killed in Lac (in lezhe county) was a member of Socialist coalition.

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Seems to be a common problem of centers having opened late… not at all surprised given this election is happening in Albania.

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Kind of funny to see KQZ members in the process of talking to voters and handling paper work only to be interrupted by a news reporter to ask them how its going.

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Village near Elbasan: 14 people trying to vote with old passports

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There have been serious problems in Korca but Im sorry Albanian is my second language. Police accused of acting with political motivations.

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KQZ: The ballot boxes themselves are too SMALL! or is it the ballots are too big? They will use reserve boxes and then count them first. I imagine because they have to keep an eye on them.

Lezhe: PD submitted a complaint against KQZ in Lezhe

Gramsh: more old passports

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Given the low percentages of voters who havent come, less than half, I’m worried that people are waiting too long to vote and that at the last minute there will be problems with long lines and people coming late… te shofim, we will see.

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Kalaja e dodes: Technical problems interrupted voting

another village whose name I didnt catch: incident between voter and a KQZ

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Fryme E re Demokartike: bla bla bla vote vote vote

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Every party uses women for spokes people but the parties themselves include only the minimum requirement of women and put them at the bottom of the lists to become parliament members.

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Haven’t heard anything about the exit polls in a while…

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Guy on news mentions how Albanian has 3.3 million voters but the last census showed only 2.8 million Albanians in albania. a “paradoks”

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Heard a brief mention of a problem with power in the north…. obviously my power is still on.

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Exit polls have continued and are still going to be released without any mention of problems exit polls had in the south earlier today.

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Woman who has changed her gender, created a problem naturally when she tred to vote. She is allowed to vote but she hasnt been respected. No surprise.

Another person tried to use husband’s passport.

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Maqellara: video of a person voting with 2 or 3 Identify cards in their hands. Informality is an issue in places where everyone is a cousin.

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Apparently tons of people have taken cell phone pictures of their votes and posted them on FB. tisk tisk

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KQZ: in Kombinat: PS member has been hit by a Bashkia worker. (?) unconfirmed

Big gathering of people in front of a voting center. Kombinat has had quite a few problems today.

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PD: 43% of shqiptars have voted. with 25 minutes to go.

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Berisha Speaks! he really needs a lozenge. PD has been rule followers today. Bad elections should be archived because this election has been correct. young people have been at the beach today. Old people cant go out in the heat. immigrants face challenges to vote. Sali wants the voting centers to stay open for them. Can he do it?

He addressed the killing in Lac but did not say one person killed the other but that one died. Naturally he expressed his sadness and assures justice will be done. If I understood correctly, one of the wounded was shot in the head. ouch.

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KQZ: Anyone waiting in line at 7pm can still vote, it sounds like. 49% of shqiptars have voted with 1 minutes to go until 7. They love to just list numbers, both gross and percentages of voters and can just keep going and going…

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The voting center in front of which there was a shoot out this morning in Lac has still recorded that over half of their eligible voters have voted there.

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in Korce there was a fight of sort among a group of people, PD and PS, involving a PS leader there. Everyone has their version of the story.

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Vlore – nothing really to report besides that more people voted than in 2009.

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Berat: a very peaceful day.

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Edi Rama Speaks: Rama just claimed victory?!?! He is speaking like it.

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Elbasan:

fight/small attack against a KQZ in the city of elbasan

in a village a PS candidate with a soldier went into a voting center, filled out a few ballots, and demanded they be counted. Surprisingly, this is against the rules…

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PD: Crowd Also chanting “victory” like during Edi Rama’s press conference, claiming Edi Rama lied about having won as in 2009, 2011 as well.

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Durres, Kukes done voting. Durres says no incidents all day in the whole county. They also closed on time. Good work, Qarku Durres.

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Exit poll is delayed because of all the later voters…

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I took a break to eat and walk aimlessly

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Looks like while other places have closed the polls, one voting center in tirana has people lined up even in the school year and into the street, 2 hours after the official close of polls

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Exit poll results by civitas are finally out. 7266 interviews across the country. 100 interviewers… margin of error +/- 1% or 2%.

40% socialists, 42% for PD. coalitions combined 48% PD 46% PS. Women vote more for PD than PS, Men equally for PD as for PS.

The issue is that to determine parliamentary majority you have to calculate how it translates into seats.

Results by district show small movement.

Damn, looks like the results are within the margin of error.

92% of the people who voted for PD think country is going in right direction.

78% of the people who voted for PS think country is going in wrong direction.

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That’s it folks. Good night.