TIRANA, Jan. 31 – As Albania is nearing a new local elections cycle, in-depth research and information, made available by once-threatened journalist Klodiana Lala and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) for the Voice of America, unveil the degree of influence organized criminal networks have in buying votes for politicians during elections.
Dozens of surveillances and documents ensured by BIRN through investigations initiated by the Serious Crimes Prosecution after denouncements made by the opposition’s Democratic Party reveal the influence of organized crime networks in buying votes in the districts of Lezha, Durres, Diber, and Kavaja.
Files 339 and 339/1 are filled with documents and numerous surveillance CDs dating back in 2016 still to be fully investigated by the authorities, while the evidence is thought to have mounted from all the tapes collected throughout 2017 and 2018, when the country’s prosecution announced it was also surveilling Durres Mayor Vangjush Dako.
Investigative file 339 opened in 2016 by intercepting members of a Shijak-based organized crime network whose activity expanded from Albania’s north to its south, involved in heroin and cocaine trafficking.
The “Avdyli” network phone interceptions extended the investigation circle to a number of officials and two former Socialist Party MPs who are currently accused of corruption and falsification of property land.
The most noteworthy – although not isolated – case of corruption and involvement of governing Socialist Party officials according to BIRN investigations is that of Dako, who is alleged of having been elected with the help of the Avdyli network in exchange of easing their criminal demands.
A second investigation by the Serious Crimes Prosecution, initiated after the DP denounced the Diber Country electoral process of September 11, 2016 was manipulated, also exposed people with a precedent at the local state apparatus in vote orientation or manipulation.
Recruiting people involved with organized crime to fill the voting void is considered one of the main reasons behind Albanians’ lack of trust in free and fair elections.
The opposition has blamed Prime Minister Edi Rama of turning cooperation with criminal networks as the only way to remain in power, although Rama’s SP has time and time again denied these allegations, saying they are just an alibi for the lost elections and lack of voters that support the country’s opposition.
Meanwhile, elections experts are ringing alarms over how the role of criminal groups in certain suburban areas is bigger than that of politicians.
According to VOA, the prosecution has confirmed the continuation of investigations into the alleged involvement of the Avdyli brothers in elections or the corruption of various sectors of the administration, however the case’s prosecutors Vladimir Mara and Dritan Prenci refused to comment on the investigation’s progress.
Dako, who said interaction with all kinds of voters is essential in his line of work back when the prosecution announced it was surveilling him, has now refused to comment on the kind of relations he has fostered with the Avdyli brothers over an extended period of time and whether he promised to help their criminal activities in exchange of votes.
“I have never been interrogated by the prosecution,” he told the media.
Experts: “Criminals dominate politicians’ campaigns in certain districts”
As revealed in the VoA piece, Astrit Avdyli, the 45-year-old Shijak habitant accused by the prosecution of running the drug trafficking criminal group, was sentenced with sixteen years of imprisonment due to a murder that took place back in 1997.
He managed to gain a shortened sentence of 13 years by ensuring a doctor’s report that diagnosed him with “endogenous depression with suicidal tentatives” and left prison on March 2, 2016.
Shortly after leaving prison, the country’s prosecution put him under surveillance over involvement in heavy drugs trafficking.
For two and a half years, the Serious Crimes Prosecution conducted hundreds of hours of wiretapping and changed three prosecutors’ groups, until, finally, in October 2018, it filed charges for 44 people accused of international drug trafficking, corruption, illicit influence or massive property fraud.
The Durres Municipality is only one of the Avdyli areas of influence; information suggests they have also been involved with Kavaja officials, while interceptions from Lezha show how the brother of former SP lawmaker Arben Ndoka also discusses vote-buying.
Actually, since the 2013 parliamentary elections, accusations concerning political leaders and the involvement of criminal groups in helping elect them have occupied a dominant part of the accusations the opposition has been throwing to the government.
Allegations on vote-buying were even included in the latest OSCE/ODIHR report.
“Both parties [the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration] showed some concrete cases but, in the absence of sufficient conclusive evidence, did not file any legal appeal against the results,” report said.
Meanwhile, experts of Albania’s electoral system are concerned about the spread of the phenomenon after the 2013 elections and the sophistication organized crime uses to control the elections.
According to them, the role of criminal groups is more decisive than of politicians’ themselves in some towns, among which they’ve listed Diber, Elbasan, Shkoder and Durres as the most problematic.
We initially had sponsorship from the crime world towards local politicians who want to get into politics, and then came the nomination of the criminal elements themselves in the elections. In the third phase, we can see both phenomena, sponsorship and candidacy,” head of the Institute for Political Studies Afrim Krasniqi told media.
