Lapsi.al has published today an interview with the whistleblower of the database with confidential information of the Socialist Party, according to whom the SP uses the database for blackmail and threats against the voters. Those threats are used against the poorest voters, the unemployed, those treated with economic aid, those who have problems of legalization and so on. According to Lapsi, the patronage scheme, where a party member/official known as patronazhist needs to provide detailed information for the voters, has been enriched throughout the years with information on all Albanian voters (3.5 million in total). This number is far more than the 910 thousand voters which was part of the database given initially to Lapsi.al.
“The creators behind the modernization of the patronage scheme built an online program dedicated entirely to the misuse of the confidential information on 3.5 million voters, which is still functional. In this program are registered even more information about each of the names that resulted in Tirana’s database. The full online program can be accessed only by a few SP leaders and their trusted people,” writes Lapsi.al. While the Special Prosecution Office focused on Lapsi.al during the initial phase of the investigation, the web portal writes that a simple verification on the computers of the Socialist Part or the National Agency for Information Society could have revealed much more.
During the interview, the whistleblower said that the database was created in 2012, with the scope of being used during the 2013 elections. While initially the system had only information received by the SP organizations, after the SP won the elections in 2013, “the database was populated with different state data until it reached the shape it has today,” says the whistleblower, who further added that the system has two different levels, the first one that can be used by the highest-ranking member of the party, which is quite secure, and the second one for the party members/officials (patronazhistet) who gather and add the information in the system.
“In the system accessed by VPN by the party leaders, there is every information that the state has accumulated for a person. General information, name, surname, ID. Then there are special data, such as residential address, telephone number, place of work, what is the benefit that the individual has from the state […] economic assistance, if a person has done or applied for a legalization, if a person has suffered from the earthquake or has applied in the institutions built for that purpose, where the person lives, works, how much is the salary, if the person is the owner of a company, what are the fines and so on,” declared the whistleblower for Lapsi.
Regarding the role of the patronazhists, the whistleblower declared that they are instructed every day. “For example, one day they have to deal with recipients of financial assistance […] Persons are contacted and asked to vote for the party. If they do not guarantee that they would vote for the party, they are threatened with the cut of the state aid,” said the whistleblower, adding then other examples “last week they were instructed to contact job seekers who are asking for a job in exchange of their vote, promising to them that after winning the election they would replace all those who are registered in the system as DP or SMI voters or are doubtful about their vote, which would open a lot of new places of work and they could benefit from that.”
