2027 local elections/ Democrats call for the return of runoff voting and fully open lists

The Democratic Party is proposing that mayors be elected through a two-round system, bringing back runoff elections.

Under this mechanism, a candidate would be declared the winner in the first round only if they received more than 50% of the valid votes.

If none of the candidates reaches this percentage, the two candidates who received the most votes would face each other in the second round.

This model was used in Albania until 2003, while it is currently also applied in Kosovo.

“The mayor should not be a representative of a political force, but of the citizens. A mayor elected with a simple relative majority, with 20–30% or 30% of the vote due to their fragmentation, does not represent the majority or the will of citizens who want to choose someone to address their concerns,” Oerd Bylykbashi said in an interview with Top Channel journalist Elda Menga.

Meanwhile, municipal councils are currently elected through a proportional system with closed lists. Seats are allocated based on the votes secured by each political entity, but the Democrats are calling for the lists to be opened so that voters can vote directly for their preferred councilor.

“I will advance the idea of opening the lists 100% for local councils. It is true that this makes the Central Election Commission’s work more complicated, but it gives democracy more room and increases voters’ ability to cast their ballots,” Bylykbashi said.

The Socialists aim for the spring elections to be held on the basis of a new territorial division, with 46 municipalities.

For the Democrats, the majority’s insistence on approving the new map through its votes in the October 8 session shows that electoral reform could also face the same outcome.