Parliamentary elections were held in

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...

on 23 June 2013. The result was a victory for the Alliance for a European Albania led by the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...

and its leader,

Edi Rama Edi Rama (born Edvin Kristaq Rama, 4 July 1964) is an Albanian politician, painter, writer, former university lecturer, publicist and former basketball player, who has served as the 33rd and current Prime Minister of Albania since 2013 and chairm ...

. Incumbent Prime Minister

Sali Berisha Sali Ram Berisha (; born 15 October 1944) is an Albanian conservative politician and former cardiologist who served as the second President of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and Prime Minister from 2005 to 2013. He is also the current chairman of ...

of the Democratic Party-led Alliance for Employment, Prosperity and Integration conceded defeat on 26 June, widely viewed as a sign of growing democratic maturity in Albania.

Background

The previous

parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

were held on 28 June 2009 and resulted in a victory for the

Democratic Party of Albania The Democratic Party of Albania ( sq, Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë, PD or PDSH) is a conservative political party in Albania. It has been the largest opposition party in the country since 2013. The Democratic Party of Albania was founde ...

-led Alliance of Change, which received 46.92 of the vote, winning 70 of the 140 seats. The opposition Union for Change headed by

of the

received almost 45.34% of the vote and won the other 66 seats. The Democratic Party led by

formed the government with Berisha as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Electoral system

The 140 members of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

were elected in twelve multi-member constituencies based on the twelve

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

using

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

with an

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

of 3% for parties and 5% for alliances. Seats were allocated to alliances using the

d'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highes ...

, then to political parties using the Sainte-Laguë method.

Alliances

Prior to the election two major coalitions were formed, whilst four parties and two independent candidates ran alone. In total there were 66 parties. *Alliance for Employment, Prosperity and Integration ''(Aleanca për Punësim, Mirëqenie dhe Integrim)'' is a coalition of 25 centrist and center-right parties. It was led by the then Prime Minister,

. *Alliance for a European Albania ''(Aleanca për Shqipërinë Europiane)'' is a

big tent A big tent party, or catch-all party, is a term used in reference to a political party's policy of permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members. This is in contrast to other kinds of parties, which defend a determined i ...

coalition containing 37 opposition parties that vary from far left to right-wing. It was led by the then Leader of the Opposition, now Prime Minister,

Opinion polls

By party

By alliance

Conduct

The Central Election Commission was criticised for not replacing three of the seven member committee who had resigned in April following a dispute between the government and the opposition. On election day, a shootout occurred in

Laç Laç (; sq-definite, Laçi) is a town and a former Municipalities of Albania, municipality in Lezhë County, northwestern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision and the seat of the municipality Kurbin. It was the adm ...

resulting in the death of the LSI activist Gjon Pjeter Gjoni and injuring the PD candidate Mhill Fufi.

Results

By county

Aftermath

Early on election day both Sali Berisha and Edi Rama claimed victory. On 25 June, Edi Rama gave his victory speech saying, "I will be your prime minister, but also your prime servant. The duty will be mine; the authority will be yours." On 26 June, after vote counting was finally complete, the outgoing Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, publicly accepted the result, took responsibility for the loss, resigned from his functions in the Democratic Party, and wished his opponent well in his new duties.

Notes

References

{{Albanian elections 2013 in Albania Parliamentary elections in Albania

June 2013 events in Europe