"Civil Society Monitoring the Elections in Albania - Keeping it Free and Fair"

Albanian Institute of Science is a non-governmental organization established in line with the existing legislation in the Republic of Albania. 

AIS has a strong team of activist and professionals, with expertise in economy, statistics, computer science, communication and journalism

MONEY, GOVERNMENT

AND POLITICS

It’s purpose is to publish data that truly address the issues of abuse, corruption or conflict of interest of Albanian governance and politics.

With the increasing availability of information, this project aim at enhancing transparency, accountability and strengthen good governance, thereby guaranteeing the tangibility of the dividend of the democracy.

This platform will publish electoral spending data including electoral donations and donors for the electoral campaign of 21st June 2015.

Treasury Transaction

The government of Albania runs a spending system, which is stored in the Central Treasury office (The Treasury). By analyzing the records of this digitized version of the treasury, it is possible to monitor and understand:1. How public administration spends the money2. Where did the funds go3. How much is paid for different services/ cases.4. How much money did a specific company receive from a specific institution in a period of time?5. How much money each institute spent?6. How much money was spent in short period of times?

Concessionary Register

Companies have gained the right to use public assets or services.

Through our database and the investigative work of the Open Data Albania team, we have collected data not only about their capital, gross profit, shareholders, but also about the concessionary costs paid in the last three years, royalties, and concessionary objects.

The data about these companies are also accompanied by a copy of the official version of their financial tables (annual accounts), as well as by a copy of the Law or By-Law that ratifies the concessionary agreements

Money&Power

One-stop integrated data sources, which demystify Assets and wealth of the politicians and high-level judges in the country,

Sources of wealth

Disclosure of the information about the concessionary agreements

Respective companies, which are given the right to use public assets.

Electoral Spending is a crucial module for the Open Data Albania portal, publishing data on

the declared expenditures in three electoral campaigns.

These data include amounts of money, sources of income, names of donors, electoral debts and expenditure structure.

Transparency and auditing of electoral campaign expenditures is a novelty in a former communist country of Albania.

It was only in 2008 that political parties were obliged by law to declare the source of the funds obtained for their electoral campaigns.

Meanwhile, there is still no legal control mechanism in case of conflict of interest related to the assets of politicians. Such control and reporting is done only by the media.

On June 21st, 2015 Albania will hold local government elections.

Given the complexity expected form this elections because of new territorial organization, AIS intends to introduce in the Spending Data platform a new one-stop integrated data source together with apps with visual tools, which indicate clearly to the public the donations and donors for each electoral subject, as well as their expenditure and the total revenues made available for the campaign. These are expenditures declared by the political parties during their campaigns.

Similar projects of field investigation for non-declared expenses have been previously applied through civil society projects. However, there has been a deficiency in the publication and visualization of the officially declared assets, which are important instruments that enable the verification of cases of conflicts of interest and any other interest lobbied for during campaigns. Furthermore, transparency of data is particularly important because some of the electoral expenditure in Albania is covered by taxpayers’ money.

Media Impact

Free and fair elections are a fundamental element of democracy.

Every citizen has the right to participate in the electoral process and thereby special attention has to be given to all voters.

However, Albania experienced cases where citizens were unable to vote because of administrative defects like lack of names in the voter’s list, problems finding proper voting centers etc. during the electoral process

Although the Government of Albania and international institutions are supporting the process by taking the necessary measures to have a successful reform implementation, Za´Lart can help improve this process through reporting and addressing possible problems and concerns in real-time

Za´Lart 2015, is a project where the citizens are invited to denounce (report and alert) on an open source platform (website & mobile applications), about problems they encounter during electoral campaigns and electoral day.

The facts (audio, photo and video), irregularities and information collected, will provide a clear overview of the electoral process and encourage the interested bodies (civic stakeholders and institutions) to undertake appropriate administrative and politic measures.

The electoral process of 21st of June 2015 will elect mayors and municipality council members responsible for local governance 2015 - 2019.

ICT for fair election

Given the incidents and infractions (vote buying, family vote, irregularities in electoral list, the abuse of administrative power, violence during the voting process etc.) during the electoral process in the abovementioned countries, amongst other Albania, there is a need for citizens to act, monitor, and address from all over the country.

Za´Lart Project Objectives:

Working as an online monitoring platform (Web & Applications) from citizens;

Real-time receiving and addressing alerts/information on election problems;

Raising citizens´ voice and increasing civic role in electoral process through real-time monitoring;

Real-time monitoring that increases objective and professional response;

Using ICT to make elections account in the country;

Increasing public pressure on responsible institutions for a regular and fair electoral process.

Everyone alerting irregularities can report them by clicking the category Report. In addition, the citizen can manually add the location where the problem/incident is happening when using Web or the location is automatically added if using the mobile phone. By selecting the right category, the citizen can submit the report illustrated with photos and/or videos which witness first-hand. However, the citizen can choose whether to be anonymous or not in this report.

As a first step, the problems and irregularities are controlled/censured for any discriminatory language or images which will contribute to fair and ethical public information.

At this stage, all the alerts are online, however being marked as unverified.

It is the Ad-hoc editorial room which verifies the objectivity of the alerts.

When the reports are identified as true they are marked verified.

Za´Lart is aiming at empowering and providing a voice to Albanian citizens.

By uniting these voices (reports/alerts), under one platform it is easier to make citizens’ voices heard from the very first beginning of the electoral campaign.

The platform is a valuable tool for raising civic voice and increasing civic participation.

Za´Lart can serve as an alternative media source and thereby helping to establish strong roots of democracy in the country.

The difference we make is civic engagement.

What happens in elections?

The electoral staffs in Albania ask public administration employees to promise that they will secure 50 votes for the candidate of a political party for Mayor. Municipality of BERAT and SARANDA

Some electoral offices in Albania are offering coupons worth of 40 USD to be used for buying clothes from a shop owned by one of the candidates for Mayor. The coupons carry the commercial stamp of the company and the logo of the respective political party. Municipality of SHKODRA

Only in Albania may an electoral meeting take place in a national Port like the one in Saranda, interrupting the port activity and embarkations for the candidate to speak undisturbed by their noise

The special Police forces in a municipality in the countrycreate an atmosphere of tension and an abnormal situation after each electoral meeting. Police in this area have even conducted home searcheswithout a court warrant,and without any ‘caught in the act’ circumstances involved.

The hospital staff in Berat leaves its patients unattended for two hours in response to an order to appear at an electoral rally.

Why should such events be reported?

Gifts and money are often given so openly that the citizens think that such situations are normal. By urging citizens to report, we ask them to take a stand towards ‘vote buying’.

Creating the Map indicating the most problematic areas.

By publishing what citizens report, the public institutions feel under pressure to intervene and fix the situation.

The certified, international and domestic, observers receive signals in real time and go to the indicated places to check.

Za’Lart works in the framework of the Electoral Situation Room, an initiative to coordinate work among civil society organizations working for fair elections, an initiative taken for the first time this year.

Thank You