QEPARO, Albania — Albanians in the southwestern town of Himara voted for a new mayor Sunday after their previous choice, a member of the country's ethnic Greek minority, was stripped of his title, convicted and imprisoned on vote-buying charges. He and neighboring Greece have claimed his conviction was politically motivated.
The case against Fredis Beleris has strained relations between Tirana and Athens, with Greece threatening to hold up Albania's bid to join the European Union. The current election's two candidates are members of the local ethnic Greek community.
After the voting ended at 1700 GMT on Sunday, the preliminary turnout tally showed that 37.61% — or more than 3% than last year — of the nearly 23,000 registered voters cast their ballots, according to the Central Election Commission, or CEC, the country's governing election body, adding the voting was held without any issues.
Local media reported some minor technical issues in some polling stations as well as the election documentation, management and voters' identity cards. Some news outlets reported at least four buses arrived from neighboring Greece filled with locally registered voters. Both rival candidates have invested in bringing Albanian immigrants back to cast their votes, a normal move in every election in the tiny Balkan country.
The voting was held at the culmination of the tourist season with thousands of tourists in areas where the voting took place. Few were aware of the voting that was taking place.
Himara is populated with ethnic Greeks on what has been dubbed the Albanian Riviera, a coastal region with burgeoning tourist development that has been rife with property disputes. The issue of property and its potential exploitation as part of Albania's tourism boom has been at the center of both candidates' campaigns.
In the aftermath of the fall of Albania's communist regime in the early 1990s, property that had previously been seized by the state was distributed among residents. But this often led to disputes over ownership claims. The issue is further complicated in Himara, an area seen as potentially lucrative for future property development, by allegations of ethnic bias in land distribution.
The two contenders in the mayoral race — governing Socialist Party candidate Vangjel Tavo and Petraq Gjikuria from the Together We Win coalition — have called on voters to choose the best person for the job. Gjikuria's 10-party coalition includes the main opposition's center-right Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the left-wing Freedom Party of former President Ilir Meta.
