How SP candidates withdrew from vote complaints after Rama's message

The in-person competition on the open lists of the Socialist Party created dissatisfaction among some candidates, who asked the Central Election Commission for video footage of the vote counting with allegations of irregularities.

Documents submitted to the CEC show that there are four socialist candidates who requested the counting footage, including Blerina Gjylameti, Etilda Gjonaj and Xhemal Qefalia in the Tirana region and Frrok Gjini in the Shkodra region.

However, their suspicions of irregularities faded and they withdrew after a message from the Prime Minister and SP leader, Edi Rama.

According to the message leaked to the media, Rama advises them not to go down the path of contesting the results. The Prime Minister's Office did not respond to BIRN's question regarding this message.

"...I would advise against going down that path, because first of all, losing a race should not be a reason to lose face, when in fact there is no chance, zero, that with all those eyes on the screens, there will be vote deviations of such magnitude that they would fill the gap between anyone and those who have emerged victorious not by 10 or 20 but by many more votes than the next in the standings..." Rama is quoted as saying via a message in a shared group on the Whatsapp application.

Rama also calls the MPs' demands a "shadow" over the socialist counters and observers of the process and a fodder for what he calls "media egoism," meaning the public cost incurred by a political force in power that contests the electoral process.

Immediately after this message was published in the media on Monday, the candidates who had contested the count withdrew their requests, except for Gjylameti, who, according to the CEC, withdrew the requested footage.

But Gjylameti hints in a public statement that she will not use them to contest the vote count, even though she lost the mandate to her colleague, Olta Xhaçka, by only 119 votes.

Through a Facebook status, Gjylameti praised the result achieved by the Socialist Party in the elections, adding that "we do not fight small wars."

Qefalia did the same, and during an interview on News 24 television on Tuesday, he said that he had withdrawn from the request to receive the footage. But he stressed that his withdrawal was made before Rama's message to the candidates.

"This request of mine was withdrawn a few days ago and the intervention of the prime minister was not required, as the media alludes," said Qefalia, adding that "it has nothing to do with the prime minister's message."

Gjonaj also failed to collect the footage requested for all counting centers in the Tirana region by letter to the CEC on May 16, stating that the footage would be used “for verification purposes.” Candidate Gjini in the Shkodra region was not available for comment. In his letter, he claims that he “has reasonable suspicions” that his votes were mismanaged or misappropriated. Reporter.al