In 2025, Albania quietly achieved something many of its Balkan neighbors have long aspired to but never fully realized: it digitally enfranchised its diaspora. Through a secure, biometric-based electronic voter registration system, Albania enabled nearly a quarter of a million citizens living abroad to register to vote for the first time—a milestone rooted not only in political will but in rigorous technical design.
This achievement is documented in the paper “Empowering the Diaspora: A Digital Approach to Voter Registration for Albanian Citizens Out of the Country” by Elira Hoxha, Jona Josifi, and Redion Lila (University of Tirana, 2025), which was presented during the recent E-Vote-ID 2025. The study offers the first detailed analysis of how Albania transformed diaspora enfranchisement from an administrative aspiration into an operational reality, merging electoral reform, cybersecurity best practices, and human-centered design.
A Digital Bridge for One-Third of the Nation
One-third of Albania’s citizens live outside the country—most in Italy, Greece, and Germany—and for decades faced immense barriers to participation: complex paperwork, poor consular coordination, and inconsistent voter lists. As Hoxha, Josifi, and Lila note, the introduction of the electronic voter registration (e-registration) platform marked “a major milestone in Albania’s ongoing efforts to modernize its electoral infrastructure and expand civic participation beyond national borders.”
The Central Election Commission (CEC) developed the system to operate through three channels—a desktop web portal, a native mobile application, and a mobile-friendly web version—ensuring inclusivity across age groups, devices, and internet conditions. Statistical data from the study revealed that nearly 80 percent of registrants completed the process using mobile devices, underscoring what the authors describe as “the emergence of mobile-first democracy.”
Biometric Security Plus Inclusivity
What set Albania’s approach apart was the integration of cutting-edge biometric technology with responsive human oversight. The system employed a three-factor authentication process—password, one-time passcode (OTP), and real-time facial recognition verified against the National Civil Registry—anchored on ISO/IEC 19794-5 biometric standards. This multi-layered authentication, as detailed in the paper, “safeguarded the registration workflow against impersonation, unauthorized access, and automated attacks.”
At the same time, the CEC established a 24/7 multilingual support team accessible via phone, email, WhatsApp, and chatbot. Staff worked in rotating shifts until 2 a.m., verifying applications within an average of three days. If errors were found, applicants were allowed to correct and reapply—striking, as the authors emphasize, “the right balance between efficiency and empathy.”
A Model of Democratic Modernization
The results were transformative. According to Hoxha, Josifi, and Lila, a total of 245,935 diaspora voters successfully registered—an unprecedented expansion of Albania’s electorate. The system’s reliability, accessibility, and compliance with GDPR and national data laws demonstrated that technological modernization need not come at the expense of democratic integrity.
Beyond its technical success, the initiative carried profound symbolic weight: it restored a sense of belonging to citizens long excluded from the political life of their homeland. It showed that digital transformation, when paired with transparency and accountability, can rebuild trust in institutions—something sorely needed in many post-transition democracies.
Blueprint for the Balkans
Albania’s experience offers a pragmatic blueprint for other Balkan states such as North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Each faces similar challenges: large diasporas, administrative bottlenecks, and waning voter confidence. Yet as the paper demonstrates, these challenges are not immutable—they are design problems waiting for digital solutions.
A region-wide embrace of secure, biometric e-registration could yield multiple dividends: enhanced electoral integrity, expanded participation, and a tangible step toward consolidating democracy in Southeast Europe. As the authors conclude, Albania’s case illustrates that “leveraging technology to expand voter engagement is not merely a technical innovation—it is an act of democratic renewal.”
Albania’s model reminds the Balkans that inclusion is the ultimate test of democracy. And in 2025, through code, cloud, and commitment, Albania passed that test with distinction.
