TIRANA, Sept. 28 – Political parties have agreed in principle to the implementation of electronic voting and counting in Albania, but with no guarantees it will be used in next year’s election. Dec. 20 has also been recognized as the deadline to approve amendments to the Electoral Code.
Members of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Electoral Reform convened Wednesday to set up a working agenda for the electoral reform and agreed on the importance of approving the electoral reform as soon as possible.
“Electronic voting and biometric identification of voters should be a priority for this commission. We have concerns about the voters lists … We should also tackle the issue of political corruption and vote rigging,” Democratic Party committee co-chairman Oerd Bylykbashi said in his opening remarks, arguing that technology must be implemented in the 2017 elections to have a smooth process.
Socialist Party MP Taulant Balla, who is a co-chair of the ad hoc committee, said that SP has long insisted for the implementation of technology in elections and in principle agrees to the proposal, but refused to say whether the ruling majority would favor a rapid implementation of technology in next year’s parliamentary elections.
“Technology is the biggest enemy of vote manipulations and corruption. I do not think that any of us here opposes technology,” Balla said. However he recalled that the issues addressed by the DP are “more of a political nature rather than of a technical one.”
Balla also said that Albanian migrants abroad must be allowed to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
“Our work plan must be approved in the next five days so that experts can do their work based on OSCE ODIHR recommendations. The legal framework must be ready six months before the elections, which means that by Dec. 20 we must approve all amendments. You have presented here several cases of a political nature that need to be addressed. To us, the inclusion of emigrants in the elections is of a vital importance,” Balla said.
The Democratic Party also expressed concern about the voters lists and their addresses, an issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Both parties argued that all necessary interventions to the Electoral Code must be approved by December.
The existing legislation says that amendments to the code must be done no later than six months before elections. Therefore, since the country will hold parliamentary elections in 2017, December is the final deadline for parties to agree on the reform based on OSCE ODIHR recommendations.
Meanwhile experts have argued that Albania is not ready for the use of technology in elections.
An expert of the Coalition for Free and Honest Elections, Ilir Rusmaili, argued earlier this month that political parties are using the topic for political opportunism and that technology may threaten the whole process. According to Rusmaili, technology is not the right tool to solve problems related to elections as it causes uncertainties among voters.
