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Albania
Women in decision-making positions
42%
Members of local deliberative bodies are women (681 elected women)
No woman is Head of State or Government
36%
Parliamentarians are women
42%
Ministers are women

Government organization

Spheres of government

Albania is a unitary republic with two spheres of government: central and local.

Albania is divided in a central sphere of government and a sphere of local government divided in two tiers, counties and municipalities.

  • Head of State: The President of the Republic is elected by the Assembly.
  • Head of Government: The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic on the proposal of the party or coalition of parties that have the majority of seats in the Assembly.
  • Legislative body: The Assembly is a unicameral legislature whose members are directly elected by voters.
  • Executive body: The Council of Ministers consists of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, and ministers appointed by the President of the Republic, on the proposal of the Prime Minister.

  • Organization: Local government is organized into two tiers with political, administrative and financial authority over local matters: an upper tier of 12 county-level local government units and a lower tier of 61 municipalities. Municipalities may be composed of several administrative units with traditional, historic, economic, and social ties; however, these units do not constitute a separate tier of local government.
  • Competencies: Local government is responsible for managing an independent budget and owned assets, regulating and administering local issues within their jurisdiction in an independent manner, exercising economic activity and administering the income created in an independent manner, collecting and spending the income that is necessary for the exercise of their functions, issuing directives, decisions, and orders, establishing local taxes in compliance with law, establishing rules for their organization and functioning in compliance with law, creating symbols of local government as well as local titles of honor, and undertaking initiatives for local issues before the bodies defined by law.
  • Ministerial oversight: Ministry of Interior

Overview of local government

Local government composition

Deliberative body: The county council (këshilli i qarkut) is composed of the municipal chairpersons/mayors and representatives, in proportion to their population (but at least one per municipal council), elected by and from each municipal council. The head of the county (kryetarin e këshillit të qarkut) is elected by and from the county council to preside over it; the head of the county is also vested with executive powers.

Executive body: The county board (kryesisë së këshillit) is composed of the head of the county and 3-5 members elected by and from the county council.

Deliberative body: The municipal council (këshillit bashkiak) is composed of 15-61 elected members. The municipal council head is elected by and from the municipal council to preside over it; the municipal council head is not vested with executive powers.

Executive body: The chairperson/mayor (kryetari i bashkisë) is elected and is assisted by appointed vice-mayors (who cannot be council members).

Local government elections

Electoral system for municipal councils: proportional representation (closed list) or indirect elections

  • The members of the councils of the municipalities are elected on the basis of the multi-name lists submitted by the political parties, coalitions or of candidacies proposed by the voters.
  • Members of the county council are indirectly elected by and from municipal council members.

Electoral system for municipal chairpersons/mayors: majority/plurality (first-past-the-post).

  • The municipal chairpersons/mayors are directly elected by voters.  Political parties registered as a coalition at the CEC propose only one joint candidate for the mayor of a municipality. The candidate who obtains the largest number of valid votes of the voters who have voted in the respective local government unit is elected mayor of the respective municipality.

Source: Electoral Code of 2008 (amended through 2021), articles 162, 165 and 166

Gender quotas: Legislated candidate quotas, ranking/ placement, sanctions.

  • For each electoral zone, at least 30 per cent of the multi-name list and one of the first three names on the multi-name list shall belong to each gender.
  • For elections for local government bodies, for each municipal council, one in every two consecutive names in ranking shall belong to the same gender.
  • In case of non-compliance, the CEC imposes a fine on the respective political parties of up to 1/10 of the state fund for financing of the election campaign, until the violation is rectified, and with refusal of the political party’s list of the candidates for municipal council elections.
  • The municipal council must elect its own representatives to the regional council, of whom not less than 50 per cent shall belong to the underrepresented gender.
  • Appointments of vice-mayors, regional vice-heads and regional boards have to comply with the requirement of having at least 30 per cent representation for each gender.
  • Furthermore, the Constitution of the Republic of Albania of 1998 (amended through 2020) ensures that “the election law guarantees that no less than two-thirds of the multi-name list will be subject to preferential voting and will provide gender representation.”

Additional quotas: No

Sources: Constitution of the Republic of Albania, 1998 (amended through 2022), article 64.3; Electoral Code of the Republic of Albania, 2008 (amended through 2021), articles 4, 67.6 and 175; Law on local self-government, 2015 (amended through 2019), articles 54(b), 54(i), 59(3), 74.5(c), 77(b); Law on gender equality in society, 2008, article 15

  • Term length: 4 years
  • Last local elections: 2019 (in municipalities)
  • Next local elections: 2023 (in municipalities)

Central Election Commission of Albania

National legal framework on local government

  • Constitution of the Republic of Albania, 1998 (amended through 2022);
  • Law on Local Self- Government Units, 2015 (amended through 2019);
  • Law on Administrative-Territorial Division of Local Government Units, 2014 (amended further in 2014);
  • Electoral Code, 2008 (amended through 2021);
  • Law on Gender Equality, 2008.

There are constitutional provisions that establish local government in Albania. According to Articles 13 and 108 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania of 1998 (amended through 2020), “local government in the Republic of Albania is founded upon the basis of the principle of decentralization of power and is exercised according to the principle of local autonomy. The units of local government are communes or municipalities and regions. Self-government in the local units is exercised through their representative organs and local referenda.”

The Assembly is responsible for establishing the national legal framework on local government. The key piece of legislation that regulates local government is the Law on Local Self-Government Units of 2015 (amended through 2019), which regulates both the organization and functioning of local self-government and defines the functions, powers, rights, and duties of their respective organs.

Sources:

1. UN Women: Data on share of women in local government as of 1 January 2025.

2. UN Women: Information on Head of State and Government as of 1 December 2025.

3. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU): Data on share of women in the single/lower chamber of parliament as of 1 January 2025.

4. UN Women: Data on share of women Cabinet ministers as of 1 January 2025.

5. Information on local government organization as of 1 January 2023.