The Constitution of Albania was amended by the National Assembly on 21 April 2008. Some of the amendments repealed the complicated election system that used a combination of proportional representation and single member electoral zones. This system allocated 100 mandates in a plurality election in each electoral zone and an additional 40 mandates based on an electoral subject’s share of the national votes. The prior election system had an element of proportionality that attempted to allocate mandates in proportion to a political party’s or coalition’s national share of the valid votes. However, political parties were able to circumvent the constitutional goal of proportionality by applying various strategies in Assembly elections. Although the strategies for the 2005 elections were different from the strategies applied in the 2001 parliamentary elections, the goal of obtaining a disproportionate share of the mandates was the same.[6] In both elections the allocation of mandates was controversial and subject to legitimate criticism. The April 2008 constitutional amendments address this issue.
