Albania - Election - June 2017
The 2017 elections were held in the context of a longstanding and deep political division between the SP of the ruling coalition and the DP of the opposition, as well as low public trust in the electoral process. The campaign presented a variety of political options. Fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression were respected. The campaign was significant throughout the country, even though the use of large-size posters and flags was limited due to the latest legal amendments. The campaign was characterized by widespread allegations of vote-buying, concerns over misuse of state resources and workplace-related pressures on voters, which further reduced public trust.
Parliamentary elections are regulated by the 1998 Constitution, the 2008 Electoral Code, and other legislation. The parliament’s 140 members will be elected for a four-year term through a closed list proportional representation system in multi-member districts that correspond to administrative regions. Based on the population data from the Ministry of Interior, on 3 December 2016, the CEC allocated the number of seats for each district, ranging from 3 in Kukes to 34 in Tirana – a decision approved by the parliament. To qualify for seat allocation, parties must surpass a three per cent threshold of votes cast in the respective district (five percent for coalitions).
Albanian citizens aged 18 years or older on election day are eligible to vote. Suffrage rights have been revoked for citizens found mentally incompetent by a final court decision and those serving a prison sentence for committing certain crimes. The voter registration system is passive; however, voters over 100 years of age are automatically removed from voter lists and must confirm their records for re-inclusion.
The elections are administered by a three-tiered election administration: the CEC, 90 Commissions of the Electoral Administration Zones (CEAZs), and 5,362 Voting Centre Commissions (VCCs). The CEC is a permanent body responsible for the overall conduct of the elections. All seven members, including two women, are appointed by the parliament. Three members are proposed by the parliamentary majority and three by the parliamentary opposition. According to the law, the chairperson is appointed by the parliament through an open application process.
According to the Electoral Code, the official electoral campaign begins 30 days and ends 24 hours before election day. There are no sanctions for early campaigning. Public funds are allocated to parties for their regular activities under the Law on Political Parties, based on their results in the last parliamentary elections. Public campaign funding is also provided to all parties contesting the elections with a total budget allocated for these elections of ALL 65 million. Independent candidates are not entitled to public funding. Electoral contestants may receive donations from citizens or legal entities, take loans or use their own funds. No donation can exceed ALL 1 million, including the equivalent value for in-kind contributions. All contributions exceeding ALL 100,000 should be made through a designated bank account. The Electoral Code establishes an equal spending limit for each political party contesting the election.
The media environment in Albania is lively and saturated. It includes public and private broadcasters, and a variety of online and print media. The remarkable number, assortment, and accessibility of media outlets could provide voters with ample and diverse information about politics and elections, mainly through news and election-related debates. However, the economic and political interests of media owners often influence journalists’ reporting, leading to a widespread perception that media are strongly polarized along party lines. Television (TV) is the main source of political information, with private TV Klan, Top Channel, and Vizion Plus the most popular channels. Among the press, Panorama currently enjoys the highest readership, but online portals and social media are rapidly replacing print media and becoming one of the main sources of information for voters.
Campaign coverage in the audio-visual media is regulated by the Electoral Code in a detailed manner. In their news broadcasts, all public and privately owned broadcasters are required to provide equal time for coverage of parties participating in elections with more than 20 per cent of seats in parliament. Each other parliamentary party will receive half of this time, while coverage of non-parliamentary parties running for elections is at the discretion of the editors and cannot exceed the coverage given to smaller parliamentary parties. Coverage of public institutions promoting institutional achievements, such as inaugurations of public works, is considered election-related and is counted in the airtime of the party associated with the head of the institution.
The 2013 parliamentary elections resulted in a majority of seats for a coalition led by the Socialist Party (SP). This brought about a peaceful transition of power from the previous government, led by the Democratic Party (DP). As a result of the last parliamentary elections, in 2013, the Alliance for European Albania received 83 parliamentary seats, including the Socialist Party (SP, 65 seats), Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI, 16 seats), Human Rights Union Party (HRUP, 1 seat), and Christian Democrat Party (CDP, 1 seat). The Alliance for Employment, Prosperity, and Integration received 57 seats, including the Democratic Party (DP, 50 seats); Republican Party of Albania (RP, 3 seats), Party for Justice, Integration, and Unity (PJIU, 4 seats).
The European Union (EU) accession process has required co-operation between the government and the opposition in several key areas in order to adopt legislation, including on judicial reform, on preventing people with criminal convictions from holding public offices, as well as on electoral reform. Despite entrenched and ongoing acrimony between the SP and the DP, the Law on Guaranteeing the Integrity of Persons Elected, Appointed or Exercising Public Functions (commonly referred to as the ‘Law on Decriminalization’) was successfully adopted by parliament in December 2015. The principles of judicial reform, including on vetting of all sitting judges and prosecutors were also agreed upon in 2016.
However, co-operation stalled when the opposition challenged the Vetting Law in the Constitutional Court, which subsequently upheld most of its provisions in January 2017. The ensuing political standoff brought electoral reform discussions to a standstill.
On 5 December 2016, the president called the parliamentary elections for 18 June 2017. On 7 February 2017, the DP started a boycott of the parliament, alleging that the government was involved in multiple criminal activities and was preparing widespread electoral fraud. The DP claimed that credible elections could not be held under existing conditions, and announced it would not participate in the elections unless several demands were met. These included the resignation of the prime minister, the formation of a technical government, and the use of electronic voting. The SP-led government rejected these demands and claimed that the DP did not want to participate in elections due to their lack of popular support.
The 2017 polls followed indirect presidential elections by Parliament in April 2017 in which the Speaker of the outgoing legislature, Ilir Meta of the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), was elected the country's new President. On 24 July, the outgoing Parliament swore in Meta as the new President.
Since February 2017, several attempts at international mediation have taken place, with both sides holding firm on their positions. As a result, opposition parties did not register for the elections by the 9 April deadline. With all registration deadlines having expired, and the CEC having decided on the content of the ballot paper, a large DP-led demonstration took place in Tirana on 13 May, reasserting the party’s call for the acceptance of its conditions in return for its participation in the elections.
The deadlock ended on 18 May with a political agreement (the Agreement) reached between the leaders of the SP and the DP. The Agreement secures the participation of the DP and stipulates that the DP appoint several key government positions, including one deputy prime minister, six ministers, the chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC), and the Ombudsperson. The Agreement also foresaw the postponement of the elections to 25 June as well as extension of party and candidate registration deadlines to 26 May.
The Agreement, however, introduced several late changes, including in respect of the campaign, campaign finance, media, and electoral crimes. These changes have been criticized by several OSCE/ODIHR EOM interlocutors for their late adoption, inconsistency with the Electoral Code, and lack of prior consultation, resulting in legal and practical challenges for authorities and contestants.
A three month standoff between the Socialist Party (SP) led government and the Democratic Party (DP) led opposition, culminating in the DP’s refusal to participate in the parliamentary elections unless certain conditions were fulfilled, ended on 18 May 2017 with a political agreement reached between the leaders of the two parties. The Agreement secured the participation of the opposition in the elections and allowed the DP to appoint several key government positions. It also postponed the previously set election date by one week to 25 June 2017.
As of 30 May 2917, 18 political parties would contest the elections, including the DP and the Republican Party (RP), which registered after the Agreement. The Central Election Commission (CEC) fined two political parties for not meeting the gender quota requirements in their candidate lists. The elections are administered by a three-tiered administration comprising the CEC, 90 Commissions of Electoral Administration Zones (CEAZs), and 5,362 Voting Centre Commissions. Counting will be conducted in 90 Ballot Counting Centres. Commission membership is based on political nominations. Eligible opposition parties initially declined to nominate CEAZ members, resulting in the CEC appointing members directly, in line with the law. On 31 May, following the Agreement, the CEC dismissed its appointees and filled the vacant seats with nominees from the DP.
The 25 June 2017 parliamentary elections took place following the political agreement between the leaders of the Socialist Party (SP) and Democratic Party (DP) that secured the participation of the opposition. Electoral contestants were able to campaign freely and fundamental freedoms were respected. The implementation of the political agreement created challenges for the election administration and resulted in a selective and inconsistent application of the law. The continued politicisation of election-related bodies and institutions as well as widespread allegations of vote buying and pressure on voters detracted from public trust in the electoral process. In an overall orderly election day, important procedures were not fully respected in a considerable number of voting centers observed. There were delays in counting in many areas.
In contrast to past elections, all political parties ran individually rather than in coalitions – a risk for smaller parties given the proportional district-based electoral system, which favors bigger parties. During the election campaign, the major parties focused on the economy, tax reform and measures to tackle corruption and drug trafficking. Both the PS and the PD pledged to work toward eventually joining the European Union (EU). Under a slogan of “the Albania we want”, SP campaigned on economic growth, job creation, and rural development. The party began its campaign weeks ahead of DP given the latter’s boycott.
For its part, DP championed its economic program, fashioned with German expertise. DP brought a number of key opposition allies, including representatives of smaller parties like the Republican Party and Human Rights Union Party, onto its candidate lists. But public bickering within the DP over the protest and then the McAllister agreement, coupled with disputes over the candidate lists, hamstrung its campaign. Veteran DP politicians criticized Basha for sidelining party structures and circumventing consultations on party decisions. Several prominent politicians who had expressed reservations about Basha’s protest and boycott were excluded from candidate lists. As a result, voters saw limited internal cohesion and unity and, with a delayed start to campaigning, DP struggled to turn out its base, let alone sway new voters.
Approximately 1.6 million citizens voted, of nearly 3.5 million registered voters, for a turnout of 46.8 percent – some six percent less than in the previous parliamentary elections in 2013. The actual turnout rate is thought to be higher given that many voters reside abroad, and out-of-country voting is not allowed. A religious holiday and high temperatures may have depressed turnout, which prompted late-day CEC instructions to extend voting hours. Public frustration with the political crisis may also have dampened voting enthusiasm.
Prime Minister Edi Rama?s Socialist Party of Albania (PS) won an outright majority in the 140-member Parliament. The opposition Democratic Party (PD) led by former Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha came in second. The incumbent Socialist Party (SP) of Prime Minister Edi Rama won a single-party majority, with 74 seats in the 140-seat parliament. The opposition Democratic Party (DP), led by former Tirana mayor Lulzim Basha, suffered a loss in votes, and returns to parliament with 43 seats. The SP’s former coalition partner, the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) – previously led by Ilir Meta who, since the elections, has become Albania’s president – increased its seats to 19, and moved to opposition.
Running on its own, SMI performed particularly well in the capital, Tirana, where it won an additional two seats from its 2013 result. DP dropped to 43 seats from 50 seats in 2013 — a low mark for the party. DP struggled in traditional northern strongholds like Kukes, Lezhe, and Shkoder, where SP found similar levels of support as DP, and in certain places surpassed it. In Lezhe, DP saw its 31,600 votes in 2013 slide to 27,550, while SP claimed almost 4,000 more, garnering more than 30,000. A record 39 women were elected, the highest number since 1992.
Prime Minister Rama has outlined 10 priorities for the new government, including a “cogovernance coalition with the Albanian people” through an online platform, purging of corrupt civil servants, ending of illegal drug cultivation and trafficking, and broader anti-corruption measures. The Prime Minister is reportedly considering government down-sizing to minimize the number of ministries, potentially from 19 to 10. In days following the elections, Rama has offered a conciliatory tone, indicating that his government will seek to cooperate with other political forces for the good of the country, regardless of the past.
Opinion research conducted last year by the Institute of Democracy and Mediation (IDM) showed high levels of public mistrust in political leaders and institutions. The partisan brinksmanship in this cycle, coupled with reported transgressions by the political parties in the election process, are likely not to bend public attitudes to the positive. But these elections may reflect a wide turn in Albanian politics to more constructive behavior by political parties in showing that political boycotts carry costs, not rewards.
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