International training for election commissioners held

TIRANA, March 31 – Albania’s Central Election Commission has held a roundtable to talk about the best practices and platforms for the training of electoral commissioners as part of a program supported by the OSCE Presence and the Council of Europe’s office in Albania.
Election administration continues to be a main shortcoming in the country.
Experts from Georgia and Moldova brought concrete examples of electoral training centers. Political parties’ representatives, election experts, civil society and police agreed to further explore the ways to establish an electoral training center in Albania to increase the professionalism of the election administration, and eliminate related problems.
International reports on elections in Albania have shown of the country’s need for increased professionalism of the electoral administration, including through improved training of election commissioners.
CEC Chair Lefterie Lleshi said the administration of elections in the past has been negatively affected by the delayed appointment or last-minute replacement of election commissioners by the political parties.
She said that during the 2013 parliamentary elections the parties replaced over one third of second-level commissioners, which was seven percent more than in the 2009 elections.
If established, the training center will also serve other groups interested in the electoral process, such as observers, first time voters, media and local government.