Albania: Lack of transparency in political financing

Transparency International Albania has followed closely the recent elections in Albania, and notes the low level of electoral transparency. TI Albania addresses the political parties with specific requests to increase financial transparency, but also the transparency of the candidate listings and their respective electoral policies.

TI Albania notes that the public is treated quite superficially with the election program - to such an extent it often feels like they are completely ignored. It is very important for the public to have access to the intended policies of the individual candidates. TI Albania requests that the political parties publish their electoral policies with which they intend to govern should they be elected.

TI Albania has concluded that the drafting of lists of candidates was made without consultation with the public, and without the implementation of decision-making structures within the political parties. The candidate lists were made available well beyond the legal deadlines demonstrating publicly the weaknesses of this new electoral system and the weakening of democracy within the largest parties participating.

TI Albania urges the political parties that public transparency is fundamental to democracy, it is therefore vital to publish the CVs of candidates who run elections. TI Albania estimates that transparency with the past of the candidates gives citizens the opportunity to elect representatives to the Assembly adequately qualified and suitable to make a worthwhile contribution. It also creates the possibility of verifying candidates who run contrary to the law and the constitution of the country. Recalling Article 69 of the constitution, which clarifies the incompatibility of a candidate for deputy and expresses the invalidity to the mandate of winning in conflict with this article, you find the moment to give a call to the political parties to require by their candidates to resign from inconsistent positions with the mandate of the deputy, not using power to influence the election campaign.

TI Albania is also concerned at the low level of financial transparency of the electoral campaign. In order to raise the level of transparency,

• TI Albania asks for the publication of the financial bill of each electoral activity - rallies and other mass activities - promptly after the event.
• In respect to the Election Code, TI Albania urges a database should be created made available to the public where the government will list individuals who donate more than 100,000 Leke (US$ 1000) Additionally, the government should make public the bank accounts where these funds will be deposited.

TI Albania presses the government to publish a the list of the legal persons who benefited, or have been a partner with public funds during the past 4 years. This is in order to verify whether these entities are contributing to election campaigns in violation of the law.

TI Albania estimates that increasing transparency in election campaigns will increase the possibility of a more qualitative Parliament, consisting of MPs who serve for the benefit of the citizens who elected them.