Should Albanians who live abroad take place in the elections? This is a question that has been going on for many years, and although the answer has often been a shy "yes" by Albanian politicians, but nothing has be done yet in practice.
To talk about this topic, Voice of America talked on the Diary show with Emirjo Kaçaj, a consultant on international law issues, human rights and migration.
Mr. Emirjon Kaçaj, who works in Washington, argues that Albania should allow voting by mail, either electronically, or provide polling stations in embassies and consulates.
He says Albania has a resident population of 2.8 million, with about 3.5 million registered voters. This, according to him, shows clearly that Albania has a large number of emigrants registered in the voter lists. In fact, about 40 percent of the country's population resides abroad: About 455 thousand reside in Italy, 429 thousand in Greece and 90 in the United States.
Kaçaj says around 1.2 million registered Albanian voters can not exercise their right to vote from abroad.
The exclusion of about 35.6 percent of voters due to their physical presence from the country affects significantly the outcome of the election, says the expert.
Some argue that immigrants lose ties with their country of origin, so they should not have the right to vote from abroad.
But, Mr. Kaçaj says, the money that emigrants send to Albania reaches about 8.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product, and this shows that Albanian emigrants have a significant contribution to the country's economy.