The Central Election Commission has entered “head-on” the preparation of the local elections of 2027 in Albania, where it is making numerous tenders for the materials that will be used. A few weeks ago, the chairman of the CEC, Ilirjan Celibashi, awarded the paint tender to the company “Vitanet”, owned by Sokol Topçiu.
The latter and his firm have been investigated several times for forgery and fraud, even Topçiu himself has tried handcuffs and detention cells. It seems that, after the “stain” he received a few years ago, he changed the name of the company, while his favorite “prey” was the CEC, where he did “business” for several years in a row with Celibas.
It seems that, after the paint, the same individual who was banned in 2021, won another procedure from the Central Election Commission, this time for the production of ballot boxes. There is no other firm to prepare the elections, as much as Celibashi blindly trusts them?
On October 21, 2026, the CEC announced the winner of the “Vitanet Albania” company for the tender with the object “purchase of voting boxes”. The winning company made an offer of 14,400,000 ALL without VAT, while another company also participated in the procedure, but only with papers.
The firm “Kristalina KH” did not make an economic offer, raising suspicions that the whole procedure was a farce to award the tender to Topçi’s company. The latter is very well-known in the CEC, so much so that he owned the firm “Farma Net”, a company that was investigated by law enforcement bodies for fraudulently winning secret COVID tenders, and even the administrator himself was detained for smuggling, or was investigated for “snake venom”, a medicine that was not registered in Albania, but the Ministry of Health bought it with tenders predetermined by Sokol Topçiu.
A few weeks ago, Vox News published documents of a tender finalized by the Central Election Commission, for the procedure with the object “purchase of stamping paint for the electoral process, MK 24 months”. “The tender seems to have been formal, since in this procedure only ‘Vitanet’ made an offer, worth 16,492,000 ALL or if we convert it, the amount goes to 178 thousand euros”, our editors would denounce.
But who is behind this changed name?!
Vox News has analyzed documents from the National Business Center, where it turns out that in 2025 the name of the company has changed from “Farma Net” to “Vitanet Albania”.
A few weeks ago, the same company published its balance sheet for the year 2025 in the KKB, where in the end it turns out that it came out with a profit of 46,272,443 ALL, or about 500 thousand euros. It seems that, in this small Albania of ours, the same individuals who are caught with serious violations, with consequences in the state budget, or to the detriment of the consumer, will continue to circulate millions of euros, even a good part of them from the taxpayers’ own money.
