Fraud Accusations Tarnish Albanian Local Polls

Fuente: 
Balkan Insight
Fecha de publicación: 
16 Jun 2015

The prosecutor’s office has demanded the removal of 2,800 names from the electoral roll in Durres after an investigation revealed that the mayor had added thousands of non-resident voters to the list, based on falsified on rent contracts with a company owned by the municipality.

The opposition Democratic Party filed a complaint with the CEC, which in turn asked the prosecutor’s office to investigate accusations of fraud.  

The opposition claimed that recent months had seen an influx of new residents registered in the port city, which was “seven times higher than the average influx over the last two years”.

A month into the probe, the prosecutor’s office in Durres concluded that the new voters were fraudulently registered in the municipality in order to tip the balance in the upcoming local elections.  

Contacted by BIRN, the mayor, Vangjush Dako, denied wrongdoing, and claimed that the mayor’s office did "not register people in the civil register and could not stop their freedom of movement”.

The Durres case is not singular. Prosecutors have launched a similar investigation in the neighboring municipality of Kavaja. Accusations of undue political pressure from the police and the engagement of criminal elements in the campaign have been made also in other areas.

Albanian voters will head to the polls on Sunday to select mayors and councils in 61 municipalities. The election is the first poll to be held under the new administrative-territorial reform passed in June 2014.

The reform reduced the number of municipalities from 370 to 61 and expanded the powers of local mayors and the territories under their administration.     

About 3.4 million Albanians have the right to vote in the polls. They can choose among 60 parties divided into two big blocs and a few independent candidates.

Since it emerged from its Stalinist regime more than two decades ago, Albania has struggled to make the complete transition to democracy. The country has yet to hold elections that meet international standards, which has become a stumbling block in its ambition to join the European Union.

Sunday’s local poll will be monitored by local civil society groups as well as a mission from Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Right of the OSCE, ODIHR, with a team of nearly 300 short-term and long-term observers.

In an interim report issued on the campaign issued on June 21, ODIHR underlined that the polls are "widely viewed as an important test of ongoing reform of local government and of Albania’s recent attainment of candidate status for accession to the European Union".

However, the election watchdog organization noted that the political environment in Albania remains polarized, which could negatively affect the poll standards.

“Many OSCE/ODIHR NAM interlocutors expressed concerns that pervasive political distrust between the parties may negatively impact the conduct of the elections,” it added. 

 

Source: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/accusations-of-fraud-tarnish-alb...