AIS – 3rd International Summer School on Open and Collaborative Governance, 2015

Albanian Institute of Science will participate at the 3rd International Summer School focusing on Technologies and Applications for Open and Collaborative Governance, organized by the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean taking place in Samos, Greece from 29th June – 3rd July 2015.

In this activity AIS /Open Data Albania will be represented by two of its members, Ms. Shefiko Hajna, an Open Data Analyst and Ms. Marilda Mancka, one of the founders of the organization and Open Data Albania working group.

OpenGov2015 Summer School will enable participants’ involvement in “Open and Collaborative Governance” issues such as: open data, crowdsourcing, accurate and analytical modeling and simulation tools, data analysis, mining and visualization technologies.

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EU Ambassador Mrs. Romana Vlahutin invited citizens to denounce vote buying at ZA’LART

International community has been very committed on the electoral process on June 21, 2015 in its normal proceeding and to not support such phenomena as vote buying. EU Ambassador Mrs. Vlahutin during the II Conference of Electoral Situation Room organized by Soros Foundation for pre- and post-election situation appealed the citizens to denounce any possible form of pressure and attempts of vote buying at: www.zalart.al. Furthermore she confirmed the significance of the elections in achieving political stability and the impact the process would have in the European Integration of the country.

Joint Declaration of the Members of the Electoral Room regarding the Administration of the Electoral Process

The Electoral Room has been monitoring the electoral process through its members, the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections and the Albanian Institute for Political Studies, and shall continue to monitor the ballot counting process. It has cooperated with the citizens through the online portal ZALART.al to ensure a due electoral process.

The fact that hundreds of citizens all over Albania have responded to the appeal for reporting every violation they encounter to the zalart.al portal is good news and shows the citizens’ commitment to free and fair elections.

The voting process was generally conducted among a normal situation of public law and order. The performance of the State Police is considered to have been in compliance with the electoral law.

We also appreciate the very important role being played by the media through a minute-after-minute coverage of the electoral situation all over the country.

While limited when compared with previous elections, the public appearances of the political parties on the voting day have broken the electoral silence. In addition, there have been cases of candidates, Members of Parliament and other political representatives seen in the voting centers and in their vicinity in contradiction with the law. It was also observed that the Voting Centre Commissions have not taken any measures to make sure that there is no propaganda materials posted within a distance of 150 meters from the Voting Centers, as the law requires. Such cases were reported from several cities.

Due to delays in the distribution of the electoral materials and the absence of commissioners, the opening of the voting process was delayed in some Voting Centers, or was done without all the members of the commissions being present.

In some cases, it was also observed that people with disabilities were not always provided with the necessary facilities required by the law for enabling them to freely exercise their right to vote.

In several cases, the inadequate professional training of the Voting Centre Commissioners has allowed for some voters to photograph their ballot papers and post them on the social networks. Such a behavior creates room for vote buying and selling, and for a distortion of the voters’ will.

In some Voting Centers in Durres, Kavaja, and Vora, there were attempts to stop voters from voting even though their names were on the voter lists.

So far, the Albanian voters have calmly expressed their will on the ballot boxes. The Members of the Electoral Room urge for every ballot to be counted correctly and for voters’ voice to be heard by the parties in the process.

The founding members of the Electoral Room:

Urge for a good administration of the ballot papers and electoral materials.

Urge the political parties to demonstrate their will for their commissioners to implement the electoral law on the counting, validation, and calculation of the electoral results.

Urge the electoral administration, and particularly the counting teams, to strictly meet the law requirements.

Reiterate their position that every observed violation of the law should be investigated by the law enforcement agencies.

The Electoral Room shall, through the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections continue to monitor the counting process step by step in all the 90 counting centers.

Interim Report of ZA’LART 2015

Until June 12 at the portal ZA’LART were reported from citizens 200 reports. They contain information and denunciations of abuse within the campaign. Reports are  divided into 12 main categories of violations and the main number of reported cases deals with the misuse of administration and public sector. For such offenses there is a high sensibility that corresponds to 44% of cases reported or equivalent of 98 reports. Attempts of vote buying in exchange of  services or direct economic interest is reported in 21 cases. In citizens reports take place also reports for tension and irregularities such as interference and presence of state police forces.

You can find Citizens Report at ZA’LART by clicking the category Reports.

The use of public sector have been identified in cases of the presence of administration staff in election rallies by being threatened with their work-position. Examples of it are the staff on the hospitals and health centers that participated in electoral meetings during official work time, leaving patients with no care. Such cases  are reported in: Librazhd, Fushe Arrez, Mirdita and Berat.

Escalating cases of use of public sector are found in municipalities where the current mayors re-run for the position. Other problem is the attempt to recruit the young voters in public schools, as in: Vora, Rrëshen, Kukes, Kamëz and Lezha.

Observation have been made on the issues of facilities provided to CEAZ Centers for the use of public building. Reports indicate these building in mos of the cases are unsuitable for the election process  like for example high school buildings which in June 19, 48 hours before the voting day have to be available for the maturity state exam.

So far there have been 21 cases of Vote Buying reports. Cases which are not confirmed and the amount offered is never transparent and given the experience with ZA’LART during 2013 such events scored a high intensity in the last week of the campaign.

Information and social networking portal of  ZA’LART are:

WEB: http://zalart.al

FB: ZA’LART – Raised Voice Albania (community)

Twitter – ZA’LART @ZaLartAlbanian

YouTube – ZA’LART 2015

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Electoral Financing

Executive Director of AIS Aranita Brahaj invited at the TV program of ORA News “Ekopolitikë” to talk about election campaign, financial incomes and expenses. The program directed by the well-known journalist Aurora Sulçe addresses issues of political economy.

e – Participation day event in Albania

In the framework of e-Participation Day, Albanian Institute of Science in cooperation with Telecenter-Europe, organized in May 7, 2015 a training with youth from high schools of Tirana, conducted under the Europe for Citizens Program in eleven European countries aiming to educate and involve citizens in policy-making through ICT instruments. Also, during the event took place the launch of the competition “My e-Participation Story”, an initiative that invites citizens to write an essay or tell a story/based in a life experience in one of the EU countries.

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Youth on ICT for Fair Elections

Workshop: in Vlora, Shkodra and Berat

AIS in partnership with Vlora Youth Center within the projects ZA’LART and Vlora Youth Vote 2015, funded by the Small Grants Programme of the Commission for Democracy of US Embassy in Albania and OSFA took part in the presentation titled Method/Instruments citizen participation in decision making processes at Young Leaders Academy held in Vlora on May 16th 2015.

AIS Director Aranita Brahaj presented ZA’LART platform at the event and discussed with the participants about the opportunities and efficiency of use of ICT instruments, social media in the democratic process of participation and citizen monitoring of local elections.

In Shkodra, May 29, 2015 AIS in cooperation with the Institute for International Studies (AIIS) organized an event in the framework of ZA’LART. Blerta Tuci and Shefiko Hajna representative of ZA’LART 2015, had intensive discussions with youth of political forum of Shkodra about election issues, the role of citizen and encouraged young people to use ZA’LART as a tool for education and civic participation.

Also in Berat June 5, 2015 was organized the third training with Youth of Political Academy. The training program was introduced by Mrs, Aranita Brahaj who argued about the importance of using ZA’LART in reporting defects and electoral irregularities.

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Electoral Situation Room 2015 – Civil Society Initiative

June 2, 2015

Local elections of 21 June for the first time will be monitored and evaluated by a coalition of seven local non-governmental organizations that in one voice will coordinate information and expertise about the performance of the whole electoral process. The initiative of election monitoring is supported by Soros in order to obtain a serious and reliable assessment of the Albanian factor on the quality of electoral processes.

In this initiative the Albanian Institute of Science will have an important role by providing the citizens with the opportunity to contribute in keeping the election free and fair through ZA’LART 2015 portal.

AIS Director, Aranita BRAHAJ stated for the conference that “Up to now reports on ZA’LART has shown a high degree of electoral law abuse”, by addressing problems of abusive recruitment and corruption attempts of the first-time voters in public schools and the use of public sector  for electoral purposes.

Civil Society Organizations through the Electoral Situation Room invites all citizens to denounce problems faced during the electoral process, in order to make it transparent and democratic.

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Albanian Institute of Science part of Electoral Situation Room 2015

The local elections of 21 June 2015 for the first time will be monitored and evaluated by a coalition of seven Albanian non-governmental organizations which have created an electoral situation room in order to coordinate the information and expertise about the election process. Albanian Institute of Science (AIS) as part of this initiative within the project Za’Lart 2015 an online portal, provides the citizens with the opportunity to report online on election problems and defects.

Civil Society Monitoring the Elections in Albania – Keeping it Free and Fair

Point Conference: 20-24 of May 2015, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Albanian Institute of Science even this year participated at POINT Conference (Political Accountability and New Technologies) a regional conference of civil society organizations from 7 countries of Southeast Europe. POINT 4.0 is being organized since 2012 for POINT by CA Why not (Zašto ne) from BiH, in cooperation with other organization from the Balkan region

An entire panel was dedicated to the Albanian Civil Society Organizations represented by Aldo Merkoci (Mjaft), Besjana Hysa Albanian Institute of Science and Erald Hoxha ZA’LART Albania.

The panel of the third day: Civil Society Monitoring the Elections in Albania – Keeping it Free and Fair, was opened by the moderator Ivana Cvetković Bajrović (NED), who briefly introduced the participants to the hardships of election processes this country undergoes for the past 20 years.

  • First speaker was Aldo Merkoci, director of media in Mjaft projects introduced the public with experiences from campaign expenses monitoring of political parties during the elections in 2013.
  • Besjana Hysa, Project Manager at Albanian Institute Science presented at the session various activities of election expenses research for the period from 2009 to 2013, using data provided by Open Data Albania portal and introduced Money, Governments and Politics.
  • Erald Hoxha, presented AIS project ZA’LART Albania that has established a platform and 2013 elections application, through which the citizens could report any cases of vote manipulation, public administration or child abuse, and other electoral irregularities.

Furthermore the attendees continued the discussion by questioning the presenters about various aspects of elections and monitoring process in Albania.

The presentation as follows:

Civil Society Monitoring the Elections in Albania, Keeping it Free and Fair

Money Government and Politics

Photos from the conference:

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