With about 1.500 votes more than the rival, Vangjel Tavo secured the victory for the mayor of Himara race on Monday.

The counting of votes ended early in the morning in all 36 polling stations, which resulted in 5.022 votes (58.62%) for Tavo against 3.545 (41.38%) votes for the opposition candidate Petraq Gjikuria.

In his speech, Tavo expressed his gratitude to the citizens of Himarjo for trusting his project.

"Himara won today, the Himarjotes won. I want to thank the residents of the Himarë, Hore Vranisht, Lukovë municipality for the trust they had by plebiscite voting for the continuation of the mandate in 2023. From today we start working on all that we had promised to the residents. From today, all united, left and right, beyond everyone's belief, all for Himara united, calm, without problems, without crises, all for coexistence, to unite all realities in this municipality" said Tavo.

At the head of the municipality, the socialist has promised that he will prioritize the development of tourism in the area, in addition to other problems that concern the residents.

He repeated the invitation to the opponent Gjikuria to join his initiative for a different direction of the city.

"The offer was sincere and continues to be so: if Mr. Gjikuria does not leave for America, he is welcome to be the deputy mayor of the Municipality. The Municipality needs everyone, problems have no color, not even Himara, and so we will continue to we run the municipality of Himara," declared Tavo.

The elections in Himare came after the CEC removed the mandate of the former president-elect Fredi Beleri.

Yesterday's voting was calm and problematic only for some voters, who turned out not to have been equipped with the renewed means of identification and failed to express their will.

The turnout at the end of the day reached 37,61%, higher than in the May 14, 2023 election by more than 3 percent. 8.678 out of a total of 23.074 voters went to the polling stations./rtsh.al/