The Democratic Party presented this Friday its proposals for electoral reform, placing at the center of the package punitive measures against the use of state resources for electoral purposes. According to the opposition’s proposals, candidates who benefit from the use of the administration or public funds during the electoral process should risk losing their mandate, while responsible officials face dismissal from office and substantial fines. The DP also seeks that elections be declared invalid in cases where it is proven that the use of state resources has influenced the final result, whether in a specific electoral zone or nationwide.
Another important point of the package concerns limiting the use of financial benefits and public funds for electoral purposes. In this framework, the opposition proposes measures against the political exploitation of bonuses, pensions, salary increases and the distribution of state funds.
Likewise, the DP seeks a ban on inaugurations and official activities that could be used to favor the political force in power. Through these changes, the Democrats aim to establish a clear separation between the state and the party, emphasizing that this principle must be respected continuously and not only during the election campaign period.
Full statement of the Democratic Party
Following the presentation of the general package for electoral reform, which we have prepared together with colleagues of the Electoral Reform Commission and which was presented by the party chairman, I would like to focus on the cardinal issues, which, of course, require discussion, debate and agreement also in the Electoral Reform Commission.
These are major issues, which also lead to constitutional changes, as is the case with changing the electoral system. However, these are necessary issues and ones we have requested for several years. These are not new requests, but proposals that are already formalized.
I would also like to present to you what the party chairman particularly highlighted as the main problem observed in elections, also according to the OSCE/ODIHR report: the breach of the separation between the state and the party. That is, the breach of the level playing field and the benefit from the advantage created by the use of public and state power by the party in power.
In practice, this power is used not only to create advantages for the party in power, but also to intimidate voters. As long as this issue is not addressed and resolved fully and not partially, elections cannot be considered either free or fair. Resolving it would affect not only how the electoral system functions, but also how the entire electoral process functions.
For this reason, we have prepared a broad and complete package, which cannot be fragmented or mutilated, but must be treated as a whole.
First, the basic concept is the separation of the state from the party. The party must compete with its own resources, while the state must be governed with state resources.
The Socialist Party, which will defend this advantage tooth and nail in order to preserve it—an advantage it has not only exploited to date but has turned into a system and a machine that destroys the electoral process—may claim that the state cannot be suspended and frozen during an election campaign.
Of course not. The state must function, but it must function neutrally. Nothing else that is used to distort the electoral process should be allowed.
What does this package change?
It treats abuse of state resources and the need to separate the state from the party as issues that are not linked only to the election campaign and election day. On the contrary, this concerns a much longer period and, in fact, a permanent principle. The state must be separated from the party at all times, in accordance with OSCE and OSCE/ODIHR principles and standards, without distinction between the electoral and non-electoral period.
Consequently, the provisions must be such as to have an impact throughout the 365 days of the year. We are not dealing simply with a set of isolated administrative violations, but with an entire system that must be addressed in order to guarantee, among other things, good governance.
The separation of the state from the party is also essentially linked to the main chapters of Albania’s negotiations with the European Union. Consequently, it is also a fundamental element in this process, and not only in the electoral process.
The entire chain of the use of power through decision-making, financing, administration, public activity, propaganda and electoral gain must be prohibited.
Secondly, the guarantees cannot be limited only to the days of the official campaign.
I mentioned earlier that these guarantees should start earlier. OSCE/ODIHR recommends that they enter into force from the moment the election date is decreed.
However, our concept is based on the assessment that the situation has undergone a dramatic deterioration, similar to that which led to the need to adopt the decriminalization law or the vetting law. So we are dealing with a situation that requires intervention with drastic but proportionate measures, in accordance with OSCE and Council of Europe standards and the case law of the Strasbourg Court.
These measures will apply for a certain period of time. In addition to prohibitions that will be permanent, a set of prohibitions going beyond the usual norm will be provided for a maximum period of up to 10 years. The aim is for the situation to return to normality and for the relevant provisions to continue to apply thereafter.
Even within this period, the prohibitions will not apply throughout the entire year and for the entire 10-year period in the same way. They will be organized into two modules, 5 plus 5 years, and will have different implementation deadlines.
So, we have an escalation of measures: some prohibitions are permanent, some enter into force with the decreeing of the election date, others with the registration of electoral entities and yet others with the start of the election campaign. This escalation is intended precisely to guarantee proportionality in the context of the very stringent measures we are proposing.
We have identified eight main areas for intervention. The term “separation of the state from the party” encompasses a complex concept and cannot be reduced to a single formulation. These areas are:
1. Public administration
Protecting public administration from political and hierarchical pressure, and guaranteeing its neutrality.
2. Normative, fiscal and social power
This includes what we know very well: the approval of bonuses, pensions, salary supplements, the 13th salary, as well as funds awarded through public procurement. That is, any decision-making by the state, carried out through legal and sub-legal acts, aimed at creating distortions during the election period.
3. Budget, procurement and investments
Prohibiting electoral benefits from public funds and assets while preserving the normal functioning of the economy. This package is not intended to halt the functioning of the state and the economy. Any excess or abuse will be assessed separately and sanctioned on a case-by-case basis.
4. Patronage
Prohibiting networks that use the administration, employment and public services to influence citizens’ political behavior.
We all already know what the patronage system is, how pyramidal and organized it is at every level, so much so that patronage networks have even been mentioned in the main documents of the European Union as a negative factor in relation to elections.
The typical case is “Prania Besnike” and the Socialist Party’s loyal-presence register. The attempt to give legitimacy to this form of patronage is made by conditioning citizens’ access to public services, forcing them to appear before the Socialist Party and using the loyal-presence register as an instrument to condition the receipt of these services.
So, this practice will be prohibited and severely punished.
5. Control and coercive power
Prohibiting the use of inspections, controls and selective administrative measures as instruments for exercising electoral pressure. These practices will also be prohibited.
6. Citizens’ personal data
This area includes data held by the state or that, in a certain way, is under its control, but also data that other private entities manage to control.
The aim is to prohibit the use of state databases for political profiling, targeting and control of voters.
Today, through already sophisticated mechanisms, control has shifted from control of the vote to control of the voter himself, to identifying his profile and exerting pressure on him, as well as to offering money or services in exchange for votes. All of this practice will be prohibited.
7. Public function and official activities
This includes practices we all know: the ban on inaugurations, visits and inspections, as well as on the use of state authority by the prime minister, ministers and senior officials, precisely to create advantages and certain impressions during the election campaign.
8. Institutional propaganda and media
The ban on the use of institutional achievements and activities, through propaganda and media, in the service of the ruling party.
All these areas are part of a single mechanism. They are not isolated, but coordinated with one another.
For these eight areas we have prepared separate documentation.
In addition to the horizontal document, that is, the base document, we also have eight other documents, which detail each area: the reason for intervention, the problem to be solved, international recommendations for Albania and other countries, international standards, the case law of the Strasbourg Court, concrete solutions, and the persons or institutions responsible for their implementation.
Identifying the responsible institutions is very important, both for those obliged to apply the law first, that is, not to carry out prohibited actions, and for those obliged to prevent or punish them.
This entire package has produced a legal package with more than 45 articles, which will be included in the Electoral Code, other laws and the Criminal Code. Experts are working to finalize this package and are already in the closing phase. The draft is ready and will then be put to discussion, negotiation and approval in the Electoral Reform Commission.
But, of course, I repeat: half-measures are of no use at all. The solution must be complete, otherwise it does not work.
The mechanism must necessarily provide for rapid intervention by the Central Election Commission. We cannot wait for the end of the elections to intervene. We must have a prohibiting, restorative and sanctioning mechanism.
The prohibition and restoration of legality must be carried out before the elections, while sanctioning must be such that it has an effect after the elections too. As international experts also recommend, the sanction must hurt.
For this reason, we have prepared several types of prohibitions and sanctions.
First, administrative sanctions.
Responsible persons will lose their jobs due to their involvement in serious schemes of using state resources. Also, heavy fines will be provided. There will no longer be talk of symbolic fines of 30,000 old lekë, like the only fine imposed by the Central Election Commission in past elections.
Second, criminal sanctions.
New criminal offences will be provided, formulated clearly and in detail, so that SPAK and the prosecution cannot avoid their implementation due to legal ambiguities.
This is also linked to the decriminalization law, which provides for a 20-year ban on exercising public functions for anyone convicted of an electoral criminal offence.
Third, loss of mandate.
A novelty of this package is the loss of mandate. Whoever is elected and found to have benefited from the use of state resources loses the mandate, just as the entity they represent also loses it.
So, one who steals cannot keep what they stole merely because they have been punished.
Of course, this will be accompanied by a mechanism of legal and constitutional guarantees, where the Constitutional Court will be the competent body to review the case and take the final decision.
Fourth, invalidity of the elections.
If the use of state resources is of such a scale that it has affected the entire electoral area or all of Albania, then this should lead to the invalidity of the elections.
This is not an unknown concept for our legislation, as it is also provided in the Electoral Code in force.
So, these are the main elements of the package, which aim not to hinder normal governance nor to restrict the manner of its exercise, but to prohibit the use of the state in elections. Party competition should not be based on the use of state instruments.
All this must be achieved without imposing any unjustified restriction on the rights of candidates and voters.
To conclude, the entire package is based on OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, the most important documents of the Venice Commission and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, with the aim of guaranteeing free and fair elections, where a party competes with its own resources and not with state resources.