Albania held heavily disputed elections on Sunday, despite a presidential decree postponing the elections until October, but exceptionally low voter turnout undermines the election results.

On Sunday, Albania held local elections despite 30 municipalities having only one registered candidate, giving the voter only one choice on the ballot paper – pure Communism. In the rest of the municipalities, the opponents were just political puppets that served the purpose of making it appear like a democratic election. 

Despite the fact that the Socialist Party of Edi Rama was running alone, the voting process was administrated poorly. Surveillance cameras installed over voter boxes violated voters’ privacy. State employees were forced to hand in their ID cards and even Albanians living abroad were asked to vote by giving their ID card details over the phone.

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the principal institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, monitored the elections but there were only 250 observers for 5364 voting centers. What a comedy!

By mid-day, only 12% of voters had participated in the voting process, yet the head of Albania’s Central Election Commission declared the number exaggerated. Regardless, Albanians massively boycotted these Communist style elections. In some parts of Albania like Mallakstra and Lazarat, not a single person voted for the candidate running for the municipality. 

By the closing of the polls, only 15% of Albanians voted in the elections. Yet, hours after the voting process ended Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama appeared on national TV portraying himself as victorious and as a hero – typical of all the dictators in history. 

Edi Rama did everything in his power and by any means necessary to increase the percentage of voter participation, but ultimately the low turnout was all a big blow to his mad campaign and ugly charade. 

Now that the voting process has ended, government officials will count the votes and then declare the winners in an election run without any opposition candidates. 

President Donald Trump has just visited North Korea, he should make a stop on his way back and meet another Kim Jong-un of the world – Edi Rama of Albania.