Definitions

(point 15/1 added and point 21 repealed by Law No. 74/2012, dated 19 July 2012; points 26-31 added by Law No. 101/2020, dated 23 July 2020; words replaced in point 7; point 22 amended by Law No. 118/2020, dated 5 October 2020)

For the purpose of this Code, the terms below shall mean as follows:

1. “Election date” shall be the date of voting, as determined by decree of the President of the Republic.

2. “Special institutions” shall be prisons, pre-trial detention facilities, as well as hospitals or other healthcare institutions that admit patients for more than three days.

3. “Candidate put forward by a group of voters” shall be a candidate for deputy or mayor, or for the municipal council, who is not supported by any political party and who is proposed by voters, in compliance with this Code.

4. “Candidate” shall be an Albanian citizen registered as a candidate for deputy or mayor, or for the municipal council, in compliance with this Code, who is to be voted in elections.

5. “Coalition” shall be two or more political parties grouped to run together in elections, in compliance with the rules determined in this Code.

6. “VCC” shall be the Voting Centre Commission.

7. “CEC” shall be the Central Election Commission, which is the state institution in charge of managing elections, in compliance with the rules determined in this Code.

8. “CEAZ” shall be the Commission of the Electoral Administration Zone, which is established and functions in compliance with this Code for elections for the Assembly of Albania and local elections.

9. “Voter lists” shall be official documents of the voters which originate from the National Civil Status Register for each polling unit, as compiled in compliance with this Code.

10. “Multi-name list” shall be the list of candidates for deputies or municipal councils, as compiled and registered in compliance with this Code. between a commission member and a candidate, when one of them is the parent of the other’s spouse, or the sibling of the other’s spouse, or the spouse of the sibling of the other’s spouse.

12 . “Parliamentary party” shall be the political party that has obtained and holds at least one Assembly seat from the preceding elections.

13 . “Political party” shall be a party registered in compliance with Law No. 8580, dated 17 February 2000, “On Political Parties”.

14 . “Representative of an electoral subject” shall be a person authorised by an electoral subject to represent their interests and to participate in meetings of electoral commissions, in the name of and on behalf of the electoral subject.

15 . “Electoral period” shall be the period of the year, determined in this Code, during which the periodic consecutive elections are held for the Assembly of Albania and for local government bodies.

15/1. “Evidence” shall be a legal instrument that serves to prove the existence or inexistence of a claimed fact in the administrative investigation and that is taken in compliance with this Code.

16 . “Voting Centre” shall be the premises designated for conducting the voting process in compliance with this Code.

17 . “National Electronic Civil Status Register” shall be the electronic database of citizens compiled in accordance with the provisions of the law on civil status.

18 . “Final elections result” shall be the result announced by the CEC, in compliance with this Code, which includes:

a) number of votes, number of mandates, and list of names of deputies elected for each subject in the electoral zone, as well as at the national level, in compliance with the rules of this Code;

b) voting result for candidates for mayors, who are directly elected in the respective electoral zone;

c) the number of votes obtained by each subject at the national level, based on the result of the votes obtained by each electoral subject during the vote for local government councils; and

ç) voting result for each alternative in a referendum, in accordance with the provisions of this Code.

19 . “Revision of lists” shall be the process of deleting or adding names or of editing data on voter lists, in compliance with this Code.

20 . “Electoral subjects” shall be political parties, coalitions, and candidates proposed by voters, as well as candidates for mayor, who are registered in compliance with this Code.

21. Repealed

22 . “Partial elections” shall be elections conducted in one or more local government unit for the mayor or the municipal council, in the event of vacancy of the mayor or of early dissolution of the municipal council.

23 . “Elections” shall be the voting process for the Assembly, local government units, and referenda.

24 . “Polling unit” shall be a geographical area within the territory of a municipality, or electoral zone, determined in compliance with this Code.

25 . “Electoral zone” shall be an administrative-territorial division of the region, for the elections for the Assembly, and the municipality, for elections for local government bodies.

26 . “Under-represented gender” shall be the gender with the traditionally lower number of members in the Assembly or, according to circumstances, local councils at the national level.

27 . “Electronic identification” shall be the voter identification through verification of personal data from equipment readings against the electronic voter list database of the voting centre, as well as device recording of dactyloscopy prints.

28 . “Electoral campaign expenditures” shall be expenditures made by or on behalf of an electoral subject, including the candidates and/or its branches, or an independent candidate, for the purpose of promoting their campaign or thwarting the campaign of another subject, regardless of the date they are made.

29 . “Voting for third parties” shall be when the voter votes in the name and on behalf of other persons who are present or not in the voting centre. Except for cases of assisted voting in accordance with this law, voting for third parties shall be illegal and punishable under the Criminal Code.

30 . “Family voting” shall be a form of voting for third parties and occurs when a family member, usually the head of the household, votes in the name and on behalf of other family members.

31 . “Static propaganda materials” shall be materials that serve the electoral subject to promote the electoral campaign, which are placed or displayed in public spaces or in premises accessible to the public, such as light posts, facades of buildings, squares, front sides of shops or building, along city streets, interurban roads, etc.