International relations researcher Ardit Bido sees the over 3% increase in participation in Himara's by-elections, compared to May 14, 2023, as a protest vote.
Uncertain if this protest vote will go in favor of SP's Vangjel Tavo or the opposition's Petro Gjikuri, Bido said that this remains unclear without counting the boxes for each village.
In Bido's judgement, the situation appears somewhat relaxed for the majority and tense for the opposition, which indicates that defeat is imminent.
"We understand that there is a Himara protest vote. That is, the high amount of participation indicates protest. Is it a protest against Vorio-Epiriotism, which I emphasize once again, or is it a revolt about property issues? The symbolism is Nivica. Nivica votes for PBDNJ because of the anger of SP and PD who betrayed him for Kakomena and at the same time holds the national flag four meters in the middle of the village to tell PBDNJ to leave Vorio-Epiriotism to us. They are stubborn with a protest vote. The fact that we have a protest vote this time is evident from the high turnout. Where the protest vote is leaning, is it against the SP for misadministration, or the DP for joining the PBDNJ, we will see village by village."
Bido also explained why, according to him, the problem was created which the opposition denounced today for over 6 thousand voters who were not allowed to express their will in the box as their identity card has expired.
He said that these voters are regular residents of the Greek state, enjoy the Hellenic passport and receive all services in Greece, so most of them do not need the means of Albanian identification and therefore do not possess it.
According to Bido, the figure of 6157 voters with expired ID is the same as that of the elections of May 14, 2023.
"If we have 6,000 people who have expired cards in Himare, it is true, it is exactly the same figure in the last elections. Those people are not residents of Himara, they are immigrants in Greece. Most of them have a Greek passport and you no longer need an Albanian passport. From the reports made by OMONIA, there are only 50 people who have returned because of the card. A large part of them came by bus. This was known three weeks ago, when the former Minister of the Interior, Taulant Balla, came out and said that whoever applies until August 1 will have a card until the 3rd."
In the end, Bido revealed that today 12 buses with voters from Greece have arrived in Himare, which for him constitutes interference in the internal politics of Albania by Greek structures.
"We had more than 12 buses arrive, which is a high number and again shows the interference of Greek political nationalism structures in the elections within the Republic of Albania. Intervention of the structured of a foreign country in the internal affairs of Albania and not to do political virginity for party interests."