19 November 2008 Tirana — Albania hopes to cut down on notorious levels of vote-rigging in its elections by installing video cameras and monitors in polling stations, officials said.
“The high-resolution cameras will be installed at vote counting tables in such a way that they will record how every ballot is assigned,” a copy of a law seen on Wednesday, and passed by the country’s two main parties, said lawmaker Katriot Islami.
He said cameras and screens would be set up in counting centres for elections due to be held next year, and which minor parties already have denounced as likely to be unfair.
“Whatever the cost, it would be cheaper than not holding free and fair polls,” Islami told the Reuters news agency. He added no costs had yet been calculated but estimated installing cameras and screens would total 200,000 in around 65 voting places.
Albania has yet to hold elections that meet international standards. The European Union has made it clear the vote in the ex-communist state must be above reproach if it wants to join the 27-nation bloc.
Islami said the video monitoring was intended in part to allay the fears of the minor parties, barred under a new election law from directly monitoring the vote count.
The smaller parties accused the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition Socialist Party of installing a “Stalinist vote count”, much like under four decades of communist rule.
The minor parties will not be granted a spot at the counting table, but will be able to view the process through the cameras and screens. Feeds will be recorded in case there is a dispute.
The monitoring also is intended to deter militants from ballot stuffing or forcing fellow vote counters to sign dubious vote reports, as has occurred in the past.
Albanian and foreign election experts said they knew of no other countries that had used cameras to record national ballot counting and consider their images as legal evidence.
“The cameras will ensure that every action will be recorded and whoever breaks the law will be punished,” opposition Socialist lawmaker Erion Brace said.
