Tirana , August 5, 2025– Allegations that Albania’s ruling Socialist Party is attempting to influence the final report of the OSCE’s election observation mission have sparked controversy in the wake of the country’s most disputed parliamentary elections in over a decade. The May 11th vote handed Prime Minister Edi Rama’s party, in power for 12 years, a near-constitutional majority for a fourth consecutive term — in a process the opposition denounced as a “farce” and independent experts have called fundamentally flawed.
The dispute erupted after opposition leader Sali Berisha published a letter from Foreign Minister Igli Hasani to senior OSCE/ODIHR officials, including mission chief Farah Karimi and ODIHR Director Lamberto Zannier. In the letter, Hasani challenges some of the mission’s preliminary findings and expresses “serious concern” about what he calls “an unbalanced and overly negative” tone in the initial statement. The preliminary report, released the day after the vote, noted the “widespread misuse of state resources” by the ruling party, the blurring of the line between party and state, and credible reports of pressure and intimidation targeting public sector employees and voters.
Hasani insists that his intervention was limited to “technical clarifications” and the provision of “additional context,” emphasizing democratic improvements such as greater transparency, the adoption of voting technology, and the introduction of out-of-country voting. He dismissed Berisha’s claims of an authoritarian-style attempt to rewrite the report as “baseless insinuations.”
But the leaked correspondence reveals that the government specifically disputed one of the report’s most damning conclusions — that the ruling party benefited from the extensive use of administrative resources — arguing that it was “not sufficiently substantiated” for a preliminary assessment. For critics, this goes beyond routine diplomatic engagement and crosses into an attempt to sanitize findings that undermine the legitimacy of Rama’s electoral victory.
The preliminary OSCE/ODIHR report was unusually blunt for the organization, stating that the elections were marked by “massive abuse of public resources and institutional powers” by the governing party, with widespread reports of pressure on public sector employees and other voters, and incidents of voter intimidation. Such findings resonate with local independent observers, who have drawn stark historical parallels: With these elections, as with those in 2021, Albania traveled more than thirty years back in time to the first pluralist elections, when the entire state — all institutions, including the administration, police, secret service, and the machinery of fear — were mobilized to prevent the opposition from winning. Then, as now, the contest was not between a ruling party and an opposition party, but between the giant state of communism and the Democratic Party in opposition.
The stakes extend beyond domestic politics. International election observation reports are critical benchmarks in assessing Albania’s democratic credentials, especially as the country advances in its EU accession negotiations. Any perception that the government is trying to shape or dilute the OSCE’s findings risks damaging Tirana’s credibility in Brussels and other Western capitals.
Berisha has called the letter “an unprecedented attempt in 32 years in Europe to directly interfere with and undermine an OSCE/ODIHR preliminary report.” He urged the media to “inform Albanians of this scandal” and accused Rama’s administration of seeking to “devalue” independent observation for political gain.
The controversy is compounded by the delay in the publication of the OSCE/ODIHR final report, which is normally released within eight weeks of election day. That deadline passed several days ago without explanation, fueling speculation that behind-the-scenes disputes over the report’s language may be contributing to the holdup.
Whether the OSCE will stand firm on its initial assessment or amend its conclusions in light of the government’s representations remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that the episode has further deepened public mistrust in Albania’s electoral processes — a mistrust rooted in decades of blurred boundaries between the state and the ruling party, and now sharpened by allegations of international pressure tactics.
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