Within a single year, citizens headed to the polls three times. However, these electoral processes are considered to have placed a heavy financial burden on the state budget.
The cost of organizing the parliamentary elections was nearly 8 million euros, while data regarding the most recent local elections are still unavailable.
“The planned budget for organizing the parliamentary elections of February 9 was 8.7 million euros, and according to the latest reports, 7.9 million euros of that amount were spent by the CEC for that electoral process. As for the planned budget for the local elections of October 12 and the second round, the planned amount was 10.5 million euros, but as of this moment we do not have data on how much of these funds were spent for the actual organization of that electoral process,” said CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi.
According to Elezi, if another round of early elections were to be imposed, holding them would pose a significant challenge.
“With regard to the possible early elections that are being mentioned, the CEC does not have a budget allocated, because the only planned electoral processes for this year are the ones already held — the parliamentary elections on February 9, and then the local elections on October 12 and November 9,” he told Tëvë1.
According to the Central Election Commission, the main source of expenditure is not the purchase of equipment or similar items, but rather the payment of election personnel and other staff engaged throughout the entire electoral process.
