900000 citizens paired with “political patrons” prior to general elections
An online media investigation revealed this week in Albania that the personal data of more than 900.000 citizens, living in Tirana, a decisive bulk of voters, had been mined and organized in a database allegedly belonging to the Socialist Party. The database contains key personal information of high sensitivity such as ID card umber, current employer, the corresponding voting center number and interestingly has been allocated an estimation of whom the person has voted for in the past and who he is likely to vote in two weeks.
Moreover each person has been assigned a “patronage person”, very likely a neighborhood socialist party organizer or local campaign manager in order to follow each case.
The uproar that such a database has caused has been phenomenal. The Socialist Party has not really denied such a database but has dwindled between saying not ours” and for the more adventurous “a normal thing parties have worldwide.” Databases collected by campaign volunteers are indeed common but the extent and depth this database has is unprevailed and can’t be matched to any party canvassing. Some of the data there cannot be obtained by any other means rather than accessing the comprehensive E-Albania service provider in which citizen have to register to get all kind of certificates, permits, official records and even apply for passports.
On the other side the civic reaction has been quite toxic. From irony, sarcasm and memes to outright threats of suing their “patrons” and the agency behind E-Albania – AKSHI- people have been denouncing this practice as a remnant of Stalinist methods of surveillance and implicit coercing.
First and foremost if proven that these data have been taken by E-Albania and the civilian register, which seems very likely, this will be a constitutional breach of a very large scale unobserved prior to this time in any other case and with severe repercussions. Such an infringement upon the entire package of laws that protect the privacy and safety of citizen data is unheard of.
Some of these data would be sufficient in the wrong hands to be misused for application of small loan debts, insurance claims and others. It is now national security emergency for the Prosecutors office and for the Commissioner for data protection to have this as their first item on the agenda. Both have announced the start of investigations. Ironically even the head of SPAK is subject in this list and has been characterized as a secure SP voter.
Second and very important this already has done a substantial damage to the credibility of the electoral process which is not and should not be judged only by observing Election Day. This kind of illegal strategizing provides ample ammunition for sides not to subscribe to the declared result. This incident has already stained the campaign and is a credible risk to the conduct of fair elections and the subsequent process of results acceptance by all sides.
Third the logic behind such a system perpetuates social interaction models established during the communist dictatorship signaling an inability to depart with the past and to really learn from it. It exacerbates social conflict as people have taken to social media to brutally castigate their ‘patronage people”, which are just pawns in this game. It is indeed unfortunate that any incident might happen to people that very likely are protecting their employment or have been pressured into this kind of absurd duty.
The platform E-Albania has been generally acknowledged as an achievement of this administration and lauded for the facilities it offers citizens and for the reduction of petty corruption which was present in the small interactions to get even the simplest personal or family certificate. However this grave incident, which needs to investigated as soon as possible fully and properly, risks to undo the civic trust in this service and therefore undermine it altogether.
Last but not least, the state is not the party and the party cannot be the state. The sooner this decoupling takes place, the sooner we recognize that this is the ultimate fight of democracy, the sooner we shall escape the heavy bonds of transition. This scandal shows that we are not even close.
