The Central Electoral Commission, CEC, has fined Albania’s political parties a total of 22 million lek (€155,000) for failing to respect gender quotas in the June 23 elections.
The Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama will pay a fine of 6 million lek (€42,600), their junior allies of the Socialist Movement for Integration 4 million lek (€28,200), and the now opposition Democratic Party another 4 million lek.

The small Popular Christian Democratic Party was fined a bumper 8 million lek (€56,500).

The CEC said the money will be clawed back mainly from the public funds that the political parties were awarded for the electoral campaign.

Albania has a regional proportional voting system, which divides the country into 12 units. Tirana, the largest region population-wise, elects 32 MPs, while Kukes, the smallest, four.

Political parties nominate a list for each region, matching the total number of seats. Under the electoral code, 30 per cent of candidates in the top tier of these lists should be women.

However, few parties respected this rule in the June 23 parliamentary elections, won by Edi Rama’s Socialists.

Most female candidates were relegated to the bottom of the candidate lists. As a result, only 19 women were elected to the 140-seat parliament. Balkaninsight