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 shares ...

on 24 June 2001.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An expe ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p133 The result was a victory for the ruling

Socialist Party of Albania The Socialist Party of Albania ( sq, Partia Socialiste e Shqipërisë, PS or PSSh) is a social-democratic political party in Albania. It has been described as centre-left, to left-wing. It was founded on 13 June 1991. The PS is an associate of t ...

, which won 73 of the 140 seats, resulting in

Ilir Meta Ilir Rexhep Meta (; born 24 March 1969) is an Albanian politician. He served as President of Albania from 24 July 2017 to 24 July 2022. Previously Meta served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002 and he was Speaker of the Parliament of Albania f ...

remaining

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 not ...

. Voter turnout was 53.6%.Nohlen & Stöver p140

Electoral system

The Assembly of Albania has 140 members of whom 100 are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies and 40 members are elected through a party-list proportional representation system.

Campaign

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Rexhep Meidani Rexhep Qemal Meidani (; born on 17 August 1944) is an Albanian physics professor, diplomat and politician. Meidani was the 4th President of Albania from 1997 to 2002, and the second to be elected after the first multi-party elections in 1991. ...

announced on 18 April 2001 that the first round of the elections would be held on 24 June, with the second round on 8 July. The governing Socialist Party had the aim of gaining 60% of the vote, in order to have a sufficient majority to elect a new president in 2002. They campaigned on infrastructure improvements such as communication and transport and on their record in restoring order and economic growth. They were also boosted by achieving the opening of negotiations with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

on a

Stabilisation and Association Agreement In talks with countries that have expressed a wish to join the European Union, the EU typically concludes Association Agreements in exchange for commitments to political, economic, trade, or human rights reform in that country. In exchange, th ...

just before the election. The main opposition party, the

Democratic Party of Albania The Democratic Party of Albania ( sq, Partia Demokratike e Shqipërisë, PD or PDSH) is a conservatism in Albania, conservative list of political parties in Albania, political party in Albania. It has been the largest opposition party in the c ...

led by ex-President

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 t ...

, had moderated their message after losing the 2000 local elections. They formed a coalition of

right wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...

parties, the

Union for Victory Coalition The Union for Victory Coalition () was a coalition of political parties in Albania. The spokesman was Gent Strazimiri. It received 37.1% of the vote and 46 members of parliament in the 2001 election. Following the 1997 election and the Civil Wa ...

, and said that they were open to dealing with other parties if they won the election. They hoped to make gains due to public concern over corruption and the continuing poverty in Albania. The campaign was generally peaceful and with no reliable

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...

s most observers expected the ruling Socialists to be re-elected with a smaller majority.

Results

Both main parties initially claimed victory after the first round on the 24 June in which turnout reached about 60%. The governing Socialist party claimed that they won 45 of the 100 seats. Monitors from the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

(OSCE) described the election as having made progress towards international democratic standards. However the opposition Democratic party claimed there was widespread intimidation and electoral fraud. Procedural differences led to

polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English and British English, although polling place is the building

s being kept closed in Lushnje leading to voting having to be delayed for about 30,000 people. The results of the first round showed that the Socialists won 33 seats as against 17 won by the Democrats. A run-off vote to decide the winner in 51 districts where no candidate won over half the vote in the first round was held on 8 July. Another 40 seats were decided in proportion to the share of the vote each party won.

Aftermath

The

constitutional court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

ruled that voting had to be repeated in eight districts on 22 July and a further two on 29 July. International observers described the elections as a whole as having been free and fair. However the opposition Democrats said they would not accept the results. They described the election as a farce and started a boycott of Parliament. The boycott lasted for six months until January 2002 when Sali Berisha announced that his party was returning to Parliament.

References

External links

List of constituency results
{{Albanian elections Parliamentary elections in Albania

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

Election and referendum articles with incomplete results