CoE officials list concerns ahead of polls

TIRANA, June 12 – The situation at the Central Elections Commission is worrying and could hurt the elections process, according to Council of Europe officials at the end of a two-day mission to Tirana.
A six-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), led by Luca Volont謠was on a pre-electoral mission to Albania on June 10-11. The mission aimed to assess the situation on the eve of Albania’s June 23 elections.
In their feedings, CoE representatives said they also have concerns about the pressure on the public administration, attempts to buy votes and a recent decision that forces media to show in newscasts materials prepared by the parties themselves.
“Albania’s June 23 elections need to meet the commitments of the Council of Europe, its standards and also to confirm Albania’s real commitment to democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights,” said Volante, speaking at a press conference. “The delegation regrets that the CEC crisis is not solved yet. As long as the CEC considered incomplete, then the holding of democratic elections could be compromised.”
The PACE mission met with the country’s top leaders, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, representatives of the political parties standing for election, members of the diplomatic corps in Tirana, civil society and the media.
A full 27-member delegation from the Assembly will return to the country to observe the voting before making a final assessment.
The delegation expressed its serious concern on the crisis of the Central Election Commission. In a statement issued at a news conference at the end of their visit, they said that “All Albanian political parties must show the will to restore people’s trust and confidence in the electoral process, by ensuring that the conduct of the campaign and of the voting itself is able to pave the way toward acceptance of the election result by all stakeholders.”
The delegation noted that the campaign environment was generally calm and peaceful. It regretted that the crisis over the composition of the Central Election Committee (CEC) had not yet been resolved and considered that, as long as the CEC was not perceived as being impartial, the democratic conduct of the elections was endangered.
A generally-acceptable composition of the electoral administration, multiparty and institutionally independent, was urgently needed, it noted.
Interlocutors of the delegation voiced concerns over allegations of pressure on public sector workers coming from one party or another, of extended vote-buying practices, of the disregard of gender-quota requirements for the candidate lists, as well as of the lack of transparency of the campaign financing.
The delegation also noted that the obligation for TV channels to broadcast pre-recorded video material prepared by the parties, as such, without any editorial comment, was seen by journalists as a serious limitation of media freedom.
The delegation said it understood the difficulties in dealing in an appropriate way with these concerns, given the short time left until Election Day. However, it invited all the main political forces to join efforts in order to increase the general confidence in the elections and build public trust in their outcome.
The delegation refrained itself from any statement on what the CEC crisis meant for the June 23 polls. But they repeated often calling it a serious crisis, a threat, and urged the political parties to “restore credibility” of the elections.
CoE is Europe’s main human rights organization. Albania has been a member since 1995. The mission’s worries about CEC are echoed by other international representatives, such as those representing the OSCE/ODHIR.