TIRANA, March 20 – The latest polls in Albania’s capital show an ever increasing citizen distrust towards courts and political actors, sociologists say, as people continue to show more trust toward foreign bodies and missions in the country than homegrown institutions.
According to data collected by the Institute for Democracy and Moderation (IDM) and the UN Development Program (UNDP), Albanians’ hopes still lie on Euro-Atlantic structures and their pressure towards Albanian institutions to adhere by the law, while only half of the surveyed population believes the justice reform will be implemented correctly.
Around three quarters of Tirana’s population believe that courts and the prosecution are vulnerable to political pressure while the opinion polls show that eight of ten surveyed people believe corruption is a widely spread phenomenon in Albania.
During 2017, courts were perceived as the most corrupt institutions, followed by the government and the public healthcare system.
The poll, titled Trust in Governance 2017, found out the most trusted institutions by citizens are education and the police, while the least trusted are the prosecution, the courts and political parties.
Part of the most trusted institutions are the international organization that are assisting the undertaken reforms by the government.
Compared to 2016, the institutions that saw the most drastic fall in terms of citizen trust were the state police, the president and political parties.
There is also citizen divide concerning media quality and truthfulness, with only one out of every two surveyed people believe the news shown by the media are truthful and properly investigated.
