The official deadline for accepting candidacies for the new President of the Republic ended this Sunday at 16:00. 

The Albanian Parliament has announced that there is no registered candidacy, while on Monday at 17:00 the first round will be held to elect the new head of state. 

The Socialists still keep the proposed names in the envelopes discreet, while the opposition is involved in two parallel groups of negotiators who will aim to pull out one or more consensual candidacies that would also require a majority vote. However, the first round for the President, the Socialists and Democrats consumed it without any candidate. 

The Constitution stipulates that the first three rounds take place with 84 votes, while in the last two rounds the President of the Republic can be elected by a simple majority, where the majority has enough votes to elect the President alone. 

Taulant Balla stated after the negotiations this weekend that the SP's goal is to move towards a consensual name with the opposition, while the DP allies demand that unlike the proposal of Enkelejd Alibeaj, the new head of state be a political profile. 

How is the President elected? The Constitution provides for 5 rounds of voting for the election of the President of the Republic of Albania. In the first three rounds, the President must be elected with 3/5 of the votes, ie 84 votes. According to the recent changes in the Constitution, if at the end of the three rounds a person has not been elected yet, then it passes to the fourth round, where the President must be elected with 71 votes. If in the fourth round one of the remaining candidates in the race does not secure 71 votes, it is passed to vote in the fifth round, where again 71 votes are needed. If it fails even in the fifth round, then Parliament is dissolved and early elections are held and it will be the new majority that will elect the President.