How, er, free and fair are these elections likely to be? If I'm correct, the potential of fraud was one of the major drivers of the protests and potential boycott. Or was that really more the opposition trying to stir things up than out of a real fear of manipulation?
So it seems that the general picture is that elections in Albania are becoming more and more transparent, and generally accepted as such by the international community, in particular as a result of several reforms put through by the Socialists.
For example, there have been rules to increase the transparency of campaign finance, and there was seemingly less interference by civil servants in this election. Despite issues with Edi Rama, it seems like the PD's opposition to many of these reforms, such as the judicial reforms that would introduce a vetting process for judges (such as in looking into the origins of their result), contributed to the result.
So dare I say it, the good guys probably won?
