"Diaspora will pay for postage to send their vote?" Bylykbashi responds: This is the Bosnia model...

The Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party (PD), Oerd Bylykbashi, held a press conference to explain how the diaspora's voting process will work. He stated that there are over 2 million eligible voters living outside the country's borders, and that the postage costs will be divided into two parts.

"Regarding the payment for those living abroad, it's been a long discussion, starting back in 2018. The solution is that the state covers the sending of the material, and the voter returns it. Covering the costs by the state means it is paid with taxes from the public funds collected from the taxes of Albanians living in Albania. This is the Bosnia model, where the state covers half, and the citizen covers the return postage. There are more than 2 million eligible voters," said Bylykbashi.

Bylykbashi: What I must say from the outset is that the Albanian parliament, with its socialist majority, failed to implement the electoral reform that Albanians, politicians, and international stakeholders were expecting.

In December 2023, Edi Rama made it clear that he would proceed unilaterally and eventually seek votes unilaterally, maintaining the status quo of the electoral law as it was.

Even during the more than three-month period of the Dialogue Group, Edi Rama refused every element and request that would enable electoral reform.

The opposition’s request to implement the consensual agreement between the Socialist Party (PS), the Democratic Party (PD), and other forces, which would amend the Electoral Code, was rejected. This agreement specifically aimed to ensure the retention of coalitions as they were before and included a direct commitment that there would be no changes to the system. This issue was supposed to be codified in the Electoral Code.