On May 11, 2025, parliamentary elections were held in Albania. We decided to analyze Albanian TikTok trends for political hashtags. Using Exolyt — TikTok Social Intelligence Platform we discovered only three political hashtags: Prime Minister Edi Rama, former President Sali Berisha, and the opposition Democratic Party of Albania (Partia Demokratike).
Elections to the Albanian parliament were competitive and professionally organized, with authorities successfully handling the task of organizing voting outside the country for the first time, and candidates generally able to campaign freely. However, they were marked by widespread abuse of state resources and institutional power by the ruling party, while numerous reports of pressure on civil servants and other voters, as well as cases of intimidation are concerning, international observers said in their statement.
About 3.7 million voters were registered to vote in the parliamentary elections, including nearly 250,000 registered abroad. Overall, the voter registration process was transparent, and the inclusion of overseas voters for the first time was an important step toward broader participation in elections. Albania continues to deploy new technologies through biometric voter identification and electronic voting. Observers noted that there is generally high confidence in the use of technology, although some concerns were expressed, mainly by the opposition. Preparation for the elections was effective, and election day itself was generally assessed well, but procedures were often not followed, and several instances of intimidation and interference with the process were noted.
General statistics on political hashtags
Analysis time period: April 12, 2025 — May 12, 2025.
| Indicator | #edirama | #saliberisha | #partiademokratike |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total videos | 421 | 701 | 700 |
| Total views | 24.7 million | 12.5 million | 9.5 million |
| Total likes | 0.6 million | 0.5 million | 0.4 million |
| Total comments | 36 thousand | 20 thousand | 18 thousand |
| Total shares | 304 thousand | 165 thousand | 77 thousand |
| Average views per video | 58,664 | 17,849 | 13,609 |
| Average likes per video | 1,456 | 765 | 581 |
| Engagement rate | 3.4% | 5.5% | 5.2% |
The table demonstrates key metrics for the three main political hashtags in Albanian TikTok. The analysis shows a clear contrast between the strategies of the incumbent government and the opposition. The hashtag #edirama (prime minister) has the fewest videos (421), but leads in total views (24.7 million) and average views per video (58,664). The opposition hashtags #saliberisha and #partiademokratike are represented by more videos (701 and 700 respectively), but with fewer views (12.5 million and 9.5 million).
The engagement data is particularly revealing: the engagement rate for #edirama is only 3.4%, while for opposition hashtags it is significantly higher (5.5% and 5.2%). This may indicate different approaches: the incumbent government’s campaign is focused on maximum reach, possibly using promotion, while the opposition focuses on active audience interaction, attracting more loyal supporters.
Let’s analyze the political actors’ hashtags using the same framework:
#edirama
This hashtag is often used to denote Edi Rama, an Albanian politician and artist who has been Prime Minister of Albania since 2013.
The visualization of network connections between hashtags shows that #edirama has significant overlaps with other thematic clusters of Albanian TikTok. The most frequent overlaps are observed with #saliberisha (48%), which may indicate a strategic juxtaposition of the two political figures. There are also high overlaps with national hashtags: #shqiptaretneperbote (Albanians around the world) – 44%, #albania – 34%, #shqip – 27%.
Let’s show the ten largest hashtag overlaps with this one:
Analysis of these overlaps demonstrates a tendency to connect political content with themes of national identity and diaspora, which may be a strategic move to expand the audience and enhance emotional impact. The dense interconnection of political and national hashtags suggests that political identity in Albanian TikTok is closely intertwined with national identity.
Top 20 accounts by total views:
The distribution of views among the top 20 accounts for the #edirama hashtag shows high concentration: the account “04traspi” significantly leads with approximately 8 million views, which is more than 3 times higher than the next most popular account “gerriau” (about 2.5 million).
Such uneven distribution may indicate a centralized content promotion strategy, where main resources are concentrated on a small number of key accounts. Notably, the Prime Minister’s official account is absent from this list, which may indicate a strategy of delegating content to loyal creators to achieve more organic dissemination of political narratives.
Top 20 accounts by maximum number of posts:
Analysis of accounts by number of publications with the #edirama hashtag shows that the leading positions are held by “respektshkurte01” and “diaspora_demokratike1” with approximately 40-45 publications each. Interestingly, the account named “diaspora_demokratike1” (presumably associated with the Democratic Party) actively produces content with the incumbent prime minister’s hashtag, which may indicate a critical positioning strategy.
Unlike the distribution of views, the distribution of video quantity is more even, without sharp spikes. This indicates the existence of a network of active authors regularly creating content on this topic, but with varying degrees of effectiveness in terms of achieving views.
Views to likes ratio for top accounts:
/* The dot size depends on the number of posts.
The diagram demonstrates an important aspect of content effectiveness: the ratio of total views to likes for leading accounts. The highest ratio is shown by the account “k_preza” (about 7-8%), which significantly exceeds the average engagement rate for the hashtag (3.4%).
The substantial difference in these indicators may indicate a difference in content quality or target audience. Individual accounts with abnormally high likes to views ratios may use specific content formats that resonate more effectively with the audience, or potentially resort to artificially increasing engagement metrics.
Accounts with potentially inflated likes (high likes/views ratio):
This diagram highlights accounts with suspiciously high likes to views ratios. Two accounts demonstrate particularly anomalous indicators: “schzopatih” and “zozon_kosovia” with a ratio of about 8-9%, which is more than twice the average for the hashtag.
Such deviations may indicate potential artificial inflation of engagement metrics. Under normal TikTok algorithm conditions, likes usually account for about 1-5% of views, depending on content quality and audience engagement. Indicators significantly exceeding this range deserve additional attention and may indicate manipulations with metrics.
Edi Rama’s personal account on TikTok has only 138 thousand followers. The account hasn’t been updated for half a year!
Basic socio-demographic characteristics of these followers:
The demographic breakdown shows a significant predominance of male audience (74% vs 26% women), and the age distribution is concentrated in the 20-39 age range (74% of all followers). Geographically, the audience is predominantly Albanian (42%), with significant presence of diaspora from Italy (10%), Greece (8%), Germany (7%), and the United Kingdom (4%).
For comparison, this Albanian politician’s account has 1.6 million followers on Facebook.com
Very roughly speaking, this is almost 45% of voters in these parliamentary elections and only 4% if we take the number of followers on TikTok.
#saliberisha
This hashtag is used to denote Sali Berisha, former president and prime minister of Albania, often in the context of his political career and activities.
The network visualization of overlaps for the #saliberisha hashtag demonstrates a different picture of relationships compared to #edirama. The largest overlap is observed with #partiademokratike (66%), which is logical given Sali Berisha’s connection to the Democratic Party. There are also substantial overlaps with #albania (57%) and #tirana (48%).
Let’s show the ten largest hashtag overlaps with this one:
This indicates a closer integration of this hashtag with the party structure and political context. The high degree of overlap with national and geographical hashtags indicates a strategy of linking political narrative to national identity and specific locations, which may enhance the territorial spread of content.
Top 20 accounts by total views:
The distribution of views among top accounts for the #saliberisha hashtag shows the dominance of the “tomcani” account with approximately 2 million views. It is followed by “gerriau” (about 1.7 million) and “vn_gabo” (about 1.5 million). The presence of the official account “partiademokratike1” in the fourth position with approximately 1 million views is also notable.
Such a distribution indicates a combination of official party and independent accounts in promoting content related to Sali Berisha. Interestingly, some accounts (for example, “gerriau”) appear in the top views for both #edirama and #saliberisha, which may indicate a comparative approach to covering political topics.
Top 20 accounts by maximum number of posts:
Analysis by number of publications reveals the extreme dominance of the “tomcani” account, which published about 240-250 videos with the #saliberisha hashtag, more than 7 times exceeding the indicator of the next most active account “xdre_xdida” (about 35 videos).
Such a high concentration of content production in one account is anomalous and may indicate a targeted campaign to promote certain narratives related to Sali Berisha. This also differs significantly from the more even distribution of activity among top accounts for the #edirama hashtag, which indicates different strategies for organizing information campaigns.
Views to likes ratio for top accounts:
/* The dot size depends on the number of posts.
The diagram shows that the “vn_gabo” account has an exceptionally high likes to views ratio (about 8-9%), significantly higher than the average for the hashtag (5.5%). “Tomcani” and “gerriau” also show good indicators (about 5-6%).
This data allows identifying accounts whose content most effectively resonates with the audience or potentially uses methods of artificially increasing engagement metrics. Interestingly, the “tomcani” account, which dominates in terms of number of publications, also shows high effectiveness in terms of engagement, which may indicate a quality content production strategy.
Accounts with potentially inflated likes (high likes/views ratio):
The diagram highlights the “schzopaih” account with a likes to views ratio of about 9%, which significantly exceeds typical platform indicators. Notably, an account with a similar name (“schzopatih”) was also identified among those potentially manipulating metrics for the #edirama hashtag.
This coincidence may indicate the existence of accounts that use similar methods of metric manipulation regardless of political hashtag, possibly to artificially inflate the significance of certain topics or to create an illusion of high user engagement.
#partiademokratike
This hashtag refers to the Democratic Party of Albania, a political party in Albania founded in 1990 with a strong anti-communist ideology.
The network visualization for the #partiademokratike hashtag shows the highest overlap with #saliberisha (74%), which corresponds to the close connection between these political actors. There are also high overlaps with #albania (56%) and #elanalasconi (36%).
Let’s show the ten largest hashtag overlaps with this one:
The overall structure of overlaps indicates close integration of the party hashtag with Sali Berisha’s personality and national themes.
Top 20 accounts by total views:
The distribution of views shows the dominance of the “tomcani” account (about 2 million), followed by “gerriau” (about 1.5 million) and “partiademokratike1” (about 1 million). Notably, the top three accounts for #partiademokratike are identical to the top 3 for #saliberisha, except for the change in positions between “vn_gabo” and “partiademokratike1”.
Such stability of key accounts between different but related hashtags confirms the existence of a stable network of content creators working in a coordinated manner to promote opposition narratives. The official party account holds a high position but is not the leader in reach, giving way to independent creators.
Top 20 accounts by maximum number of posts:
As with #saliberisha, there is an extreme dominance of the “tomcani” account with about 240-250 videos, which is 7-8 times more than the next most active account “tomcani12” (which, judging by the name, may be related to the first).
The presence of potentially related accounts (“tomcani” and “tomcani12”) may indicate the creation of a network of complementary content distribution channels. The extremely high concentration of video production from one author confirms the centralized nature of the Democratic Party’s content promotion campaign on TikTok.
Views to likes ratio for top accounts:
/* The dot size depends on the number of posts.
The diagram demonstrates that the “tomcani” account has not only the highest number of views and publications but also a high likes to views ratio (about 6-7%). “Gerriau” also shows high indicators (about 5%).
The “tomcani” account shows consistently high performance across all metrics, which may indicate either a professional approach to content creation or a comprehensive strategy including both mass video creation and methods to improve their effectiveness. Such dominance of one account in all dimensions is atypical for organic content distribution.
Accounts with potentially inflated likes (high likes/views ratio):
The diagram highlights three accounts with suspiciously high likes to views ratios: “sol_menduh11” (about 12%), “bylykbashownr” (about 11%), and “mario_lendi” (about 10%). These indicators significantly exceed the average engagement rate for the hashtag (5.2%).
The presence of three accounts with abnormally high indicators may indicate a wider use of methods for artificially increasing engagement for content related to the Democratic Party. This may also indicate the existence of a network of interconnected accounts jointly promoting certain narratives.
Comparative analysis of data on political hashtags in TikTok in Romania and Albania reveals a dramatic difference in the scale of using this platform for political communication in the two countries of the region.
In terms of video quantity, there is a colossal gap: in Albania, only 1,822 videos were recorded for the three main political hashtags (421 for #edirama, 701 for #saliberisha, and 700 for #partiademokratike), while in Romania this indicator reaches 17,350 videos for four candidate hashtags (6,800 for #georgesimion, 3,608 for #crinantonescu, 4,962 for #nicusordan, and 1,980 for #victorponta). Thus, political activity in Romanian TikTok is 9.5 times higher than Albanian in terms of created content.
An even more impressive difference is observed in view indicators. Albanian political hashtags collected a total of 46.7 million views (24.7 million for #edirama, 12.5 million for #saliberisha, and 9.5 million for #partiademokratike), while Romanian ones reached an astonishing 486 million (143 million for #georgesimion, 100 million for #crinantonescu, 176 million for #nicusordan, and 67 million for #victorponta). The gap is 10.4 times in favor of Romania in terms of political content reach.
Qualitative indicators of audience engagement also demonstrate a substantial difference. In Albania, the average engagement rate varies from 3.4% to 5.5%, while in Romania it ranges from 11.6% to 15.3%, which is 2.8-3.4 times higher. This indicates not only a larger amount of content but also its significantly higher effectiveness in the Romanian segment.
Several key factors explain this substantial difference. The demographic factor plays a significant role: Romania’s population (about 19 million) is approximately 6.5 times larger than Albania’s (about 2.9 million). Romania also has a higher level of internet penetration and social media usage. The type of elections also matters: in Romania, presidential elections were analyzed, which have nationwide significance, while in Albania – parliamentary elections, which may evoke a different level of public interest.
Political campaign strategies in the two countries differ noticeably. The data indicates more structured and extensive use of TikTok in Romanian political campaigns, with a larger number of involved accounts and more diversified approaches. In Romania, there is also a noticeably higher level of institutionalization of political presence, with a higher proportion of verified accounts (up to 8.9% for #victorponta compared to a low level of verification in Albania).
These data indicate a substantial difference in the degree of TikTok integration into the political communication strategies of the two Balkan countries, where Romania demonstrates significantly more advanced and extensive use of this platform for political mobilization and influencing public opinion.
This publication was developed by a research team under the leadership of Mikhail Doroshevich, PhD.
