Guaranteeing the freedom of integrity and monitoring the principles of fair and free elections in 5 Municipalities

Financially supported by the Federal Republic of Germany

Project duration: March 2021 – June 2021

The overall objective of the project is ensuring the freedom of integrity of the new established bodies and monitoring the principles of fair and free elections in 5 Municipalities.

Specific objectives of the project consist in:

a) Increasing transparency, accountability and responsibility of the bodies of the electoral system, in the local and central level (including CEC, ZACs, Voting and Ballots Centers etc).

b) Raising awareness and informing the citizens will be increased through publishing online sensitizing and informative products

c) Empowering the bridges of cooperation with CEC and monitored bodies, with the aim of stressing the obligation to respect the principles of legality and avoiding misuse of public administration

Results:

During the implementation of this project, AHC has fulfilled the statistical results as below mentioned:

a) 5 local coordinators have been selected, whose were engaged as direct facilitators in the 5 Municipalities of the country.

b) Through an open call 6 LTOs (Long Term Observers) were engaged for the monitoring of the pre-electoral, electoral and post-electoral process; and 47 STOs (Short Term Observers). From those 36 observers were engaged in the monitoring of the voting process, 9 observers in the monitoring of the counting process and 9 observers engaged in the both processes.

c) With the engagement of the well-known experts at electoral field, the selected observers were trained online through 2 days of training, on the specific procedures of the monitoring process of the voting and counting day.

d) 1 expert on field was engaged at the online training of the observers, with the aim of increasing their capacities on the monitoring of the media and monitoring on field, referring the implementation of the legislation on decriminalization and legislation on the misuse of the public funds.

e) 1 launching event was organized, during which at least 67 representatives of the CSOs, activists, media representatives etc. have participated. At this event, a report on the preliminary findings of the monitoring of the pre-electoral process was published.

f) 1 monitoring methodology, 1 manual and 2 specific categorized questionnaires were drafted and have served as a reference for the monitoring realized by the observers.

g) 6 official correspondences were addressed to the CEC and responsible institutions and 4 open letters and public press statements were published online, with the aim of exerting positive pressure and raising responsibility and institutional accountability towards public interest.

h) The public was periodically informed on the information published online through the social media, on the E-day and counting process at the ballot stations.

i) 1 press conference was organized on 26th April 2021, during which preliminary findings of the monitoring process of the voting and counting days were published.

j) 1 report with preliminary findings was published online in Albanian and English.

k) 1 special report on the monitoring of the implementation of the legislation on decriminalization in 5 Municipalities of the country was published online, in Albanian and English.

l) 1 final report with findings and crucial recommendations was published online in Albanian and English.

m) The report was disseminated through official correspondences towards the competent institutions CEC, General Prosecutor Office etc.

n) 1 informative video was published on the preliminary findings of the monitoring process in the 5 Municipalities of the country.