May 14, 2023 Election Outcomes, Number of Votes for Mayors versus the Number of Votes for the Political Entity they Represent

Open Data Albania is examining the data regarding the 2023 elections outcomes, focusing on the contrast between the number of votes cast on behalf of the mayoral candidates, number of votes secured by the political entity they represent.

This will also serve to determine whether, in certain electoral areas, the candidate has performed better than the Political Subject. But, in analyzing such fact, we should consider that there were 40 political entities participating in the local elections for seats in the Municipal Council, whereas not all competing political entities had set forth a candidate for Mayor.

Socialist Party. The Socialist Party’s candidate in Kukës is the one case in which the candidate secured a bigger number of votes, compared to the political entity he represented. More specifically, Safet Gjici has managed to collect 384% more votes than his own Party, which in absolute numbers meant that Gjici was voted by 11,623 individuals; meanwhile, the SP itself in the race for the Municipal Council in Kukës received only 2,400 votes).

In Tropoja Rexhe Byberi locked in 278% more votes, than the number of votes cast for the SP in the municipal council (5 127 Byberi against 1 356 SP votes).

Gjon Gjonaj, SP candidate in the Pukë Municipality, although he did not manage to win against the candidate of Together We Win coalition, he received 268% more votes than the subject, namely 2,507 against 682 SP votes.

Over 200% compared to the votes for the Socialist Party were also received by the candidate of Këlcyra (Klement Ndoni, 261% more), Malësi e Madhe (Tonin Marinaj, +252%), Fushë Arrëzit (Fran Tuci, +226%, didn’t win the mayoral seat), Lezha (Pjerin Ndreu, +212%), Has (Beqir Mulaj, +206%, didn’t win the mayoral seat), and Klos (Valbona Kola, +203%)

The candidate of Tirana Municipality, Erion Veliaj managed to win 8% more votes than the Socialist Party itself for the municipal council, namely, Mr. Veliaj was voted by 158,852 voters against the Socialist Party’s  147,267 own votes for the Municipal Council.

In other large municipalities, Fier’s candidate, Armando Subashi, won 19% more votes than SP (35,309 Subashi vs 29,723 SP votes). Elbasan, the candidate Gledian Llatja exceeded the SP votes by 12% (35,985 against 32,255 SP votes).

Mayoral Candidate, Ms. Emiriana Sako, overcame the SP ‘s number votes with a 11% difference in the Municipality of Durrës (48,512 votes for Mrs. Sako vs. 43,861 votes for SP).

In Shkodër, the candidate Benet Beci exceeded the number of votes collected by the SP by a large margin, 92%; more specifically, Beci secured 34,531 vote as a mayoral candidate, against the SP ‘s 17,963 votes for the Municipal Council.

Only Kuçova’s candidate has collected fewer votes than the Socialist Party, namely 1% less (Kreshnik Hajdari’s 6,910 votes versus SP’s 7,005 votes).

Source: CEC
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Source: CEC
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

The number of votes cast in favour of the Together We Win political subject, in general, has been surpassed by the number of votes cast on behalf of its mayoral candidates to a greater extent than those of the Socialist Party. This can be explained with the division of the vote between the opposition parties.

The candidate for mayor in Këlcyra, Arjan Kasaj, collected eight times more votes than the Together We Win coalition, which he represented (216 votes of Bashke Fitomjem, against 1936 votes for Kasaj).

The candidate for mayor in Selenica, Leonard Rakipaj, exceeded the number of votes won by the Together We Win coalition for the Municipal Council, which he represented, by a 724% margin (428 votes for Together We Win coalition vs Rakipaj’s 3528 votes).

Other candidates representing this coalition, which scored more than 5 times the number of votes cast in favour of the Together We Win subject: Hil Curri in Fushë Arrëz with 654% more (357 coalition votes against Curri’s 2693 votes); Rrok Dodaj in Pukë with 622% more (482 coalition votes vs Dodaj’s 3480 votes) and Hasim Çekrezi in Gramsh with 505% (931 votes for Together We Win vs 5634 votes for the candidate).

Large municipalities. In the municipality of Tirana, the candidate Belind Këlliçi exceeded the numbers secured by the Together We Win coalition by 48%; namely, he got 100,422 votes in favour of its mayoral candidacy, whereas, the coalition he represented got 67,999 votes for the city’s Council seats.

In Fier, the votes Together We Win won for the Municipal Council were exceeded by 52% by the candidate for Mayor, Edvar Kodheli (respectively 10,092 vs. 6,651 votes).

Bardh Spahia received 73% more votes in the Shkodër Municipality than the Together We Win Coalition collected for the Municipal Council seats (respectively 22,804 vs 13,177 votes).

Mayoral candidate Igli Cara collected 82% more votes than the number secured by the political subject in Durrës, namely 38,784 votes against 21,286 votes.

Another Mayoral Candidate, Luciano Boçi in Elbasan, managed to surpass by a large margin – 91% more – the number of votes cast to have him elected as mayor,  compared to the votes won by the coalition he represented. (27912 votes against 14621 votes cast in favour of the Political Subject concerning the City Council’s seats).

In Vlore, Hysni Sharra received 79% more votes than Together We Win coalition (11802 vs 6606 votes respectively).

On the other hand, there are two candidates for mayor competing for the Together We Win Coalition, which did not manage to collect as many votes as the coalition. Respectively, in the Poliçan Municipality, Mr. Behar Xhaferaj collected 5% less votes than the Together We Win coalition (461 vs 487 votes respectively), as well as the candidate, Resmi Shanaj, in Mallakastër with 15% fewer votes than Together We Win (736 vs 864 votes respectively).

Source: CEC
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Source: CEC
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

The official DP – Democratic Party- ran with a candidate for mayor in only 14 municipalities. Among them, there are cases in which the votes cast in favour of the Democratic Party for the Municipal Council were exceeded (7) by the votes of the candidates for mayor.

The candidate in the Municipality of Mallakastra, Agron Kapllanaj secured a margin of 304.5% more votes than the Official DP (respectivelyy 5792 Kapllanaj votes vs 1432 DP).

The mayoral candidate in the municipality of Finiq, Leonidha Papa, exceeded the number of votes or the DP by 225%, namely 1712 Papa’s votes against 482 DP’s.

Candidates who received fewer votes than the DP are Bilbil Bajraktari (43% less) in Kamze, Ilirjan Koxhaj in Kucove (-40.6%), etc. The same for the candidate for Tirana municipality, Roland Bejko, who won 37.5% fewer votes than PD in the Municipal Council, where Bejko collected only 12,398 votes, against the 19,827 votes collected by the official DP.

Source: CEC
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Source: CEC
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania

Other articles offering more data, details and analysis regarding the Electoral Process can be accessed on the Open Data Albania website, the Electoral Processes section.

Download excel: May 14, 2023 Election Outcomes, Number of Votes for Mayors versus the Number of Votes for the Political Entity they Represent
Comments and Analyses: Open Data Albania
Contributed by: Ilir Brasha
Translated by: Rezarta Cushaj