KQZ's AI Vote-Tabulation Pilot — Albania Tests Ballot-Scanning Technology in the 2025 Partial Elections

Albania's Central Election Commission (KQZ), led by chief commissioner Ilirjan Celibashi, ran the country's first legally mandated AI pilot for elections during the September 9, 2025 partial municipal elections, with costs covered by international donor partners. The system used image analysis to scan ballots handled by polling-station staff, aiming to speed up counting and results transmission, while the official manual count continued in parallel and party-appointed vote counters kept their existing role unchanged.

Deployed at only 3% of polling stations, the tool ran into problems that were not fully anticipated before the field test: it tended to count a vote twice if a ballot was held up for too short a period, and it struggled to recognise ballots with even slight inconsistencies. Repeated handling by staff also caused ink markings to fade over the course of counting, degrading the system's reliability over time, according to International IDEA's review of the pilot. KQZ has said the tool will not replace manual counting unless and until it can be proven reliable, and Albanian media have separately reported concern that the country's broader election system remains unprepared for AI's wider impact on the vote.

Read the full analysis: https://www.idea.int/news/pilot-policy-how-electoral-bodies-are-responsibly-adopting-ai