Save the date: Open Data Youth Fellowship Master Class on Enhancing Electoral Integrity through Data and Evidence-Based Approaches

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Dear friends,

We would like to share with you an invitation to participate in a Master Class Event where Data Analysts and activists who have completed the first cycle of training as part of the Open Data Youth Fellowship and Network will share with new members of the Network evidence, analysis and activities on Electoral Integrity, improvement through data and evidence-based processes.

  • Who can participate: People who share an Interest and Engagement in Electoral Integrity
  • Venue: Rogner Hotel, Vienna Meeting Room
  • When: July 3rd, 14:30 to 17:00
  • Topic: Electoral Integrity, improvement through data and evidence-based processes
  • Project :

This event is part of activities for increasing the capacities of young people, through The OpenDataFellowship Youth Network, established within the Open Data, Access and Transparency over Sectors exposed to Risk of Corruption Project, supported by Sida through the Swedish Embassy in Albania (2021 – February 2024).

The participants of the first round of the Open Data Fellowship Youth Network (2021 – April 2023) will showcase data, visualizations, articles, and opinions related to electoral issues, focusing on the intricacies of the Electoral System and the Map of Problems and Irregularities.

Speakers:

  1. Electoral Mandate Allocation Projections and the Risk of Non-Representation in Voting
  1. The Media’s Influence: Unraveling the Economic Interests of Television Owners and their Impact on Elections
  • Eng. Besjana HYSA, Founder of AIS/Open Data Albania
  1. ICT for Fair Elections – Za’Lart (Raised Voice) for 2025 Elections?!
  2. Mapping  Vote Buying and Irregularities – How can we create such a map using information technology and inviting citizens to report on electoral issues?
  3. Overview of the model already applied by AIS in 2017 Elections.

Our organization, AIS, has been working with young people since December 2021 to strengthen their capacity against corruption through civic education and the improvement of fact-checking models. Events such as training sessions, forums, DataThons, individual sessions, and master classes are organized for young people, aimed at enhancing their skills and capacities in areas such as Public Speaking, Evidence-based Debates, and utilizing Open Data Albania’s philosophy and tools. The program follows a structured training curriculum and includes guidance from analysts at Open Data Albania, as well as opportunities for internships with the organization.

The Open Data Fellowship Youth Network is being established within the Open Data, Access and Transparency over Sectors exposed to Risk of Corruption Project supported by Sida through the Swedish Embassy in Albania.

Save the date for this important event: July 3rd, from 14:00 to 17:00, at Hotel Rogner Tirana. We kindly request you to confirm your participation no later than June 26th.

The event will be conducted in both Albanian and English, and simultaneous interpretation services will be provided by Mrs. Etleva Pushi.

The need for Electoral Reform. A Projection on the Distribution of 2025 MP Mandates based on the May 2023 votes shows defects in representation

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Dear Ladies,

Dear Gentlemen,

AIS, the organization promoting Open Data Albania, has just published a Projection of how mandates for MPs would be distributed in the 2025 parliamentary elections, if the electoral subjects would run with the Current Electoral Code applied, and secure as many votes as in the May 14 Elections (votes for the representation of the Subjects in the Municipal Councils).

This projection brings evidence of the distortions of the Electoral Will and non-compliance with the Principle of Representation.

The Current System (Regional Competition) creates Non-Representation even at the expense of small or new parties. The Projection based on the results of May 2023, includes 282,850 Votes of these Parties that are not translated into Mandate, that is, they do not produce any MP mandates at all. This number of votes of the Parties that cannot reach the Parliament, is as much as 21% of the voters in the latest process.

The Current Code, with the results of May 14 and with the same subjects participating in the Election (40 parties), would give the Main Party with 84 Mandates, 10 more than in the 2021 Elections (with 12 electoral subjects running).

The paradox is that this Party would manage to get 3/5ths of the Parliamentiary seats, although in the electoral process it received 188,558 less votes (in 2021, 768,134 votes, while in the May 14 election process, this electoral subject managed to receive 579 576 votes or minus 24.5%) for the municipality councils.

As it is clearly seen from this Projection, the ratio between Votes per Subject and MP Mandates is applied as an Indirect Ratio in the case of the Main Party: Less Voters and More MP Mandates.

See the published report and evidence LINK Projection of Mandate distribution for MPs in the 2025 elections based on data results for Subjects of the May 14 Electoral Process – Open Data Albania (ndiqparate.al)

If the latest elections of May 14th were parliamentary elections, and if the same formula and legal provision of Article 162 of the Electoral Code (in force) were applied for allocating the parliamentary seats, the allocation would be as follows: Socialist Party 84; Together We Win 34; The Official Democratic Party only 11; The Social Democratic Party led by Tom Doshi 9 mandates; The Agrarian Environmentalist Party led by Agron Duka 2 mandates.

What if a National Competition System was applied. If we compare the same vote result as translated into Mandates for Subjects if the country would apply a National Electoral system where Specifically:

–       If the SP would receive 579,576 votes, but the country would have a National, and not a Regional  Competition system, the SP would receive only 67 MPs. So less than 50% of the number of MPs in the Assembly.

Based on the above, AIS / Open Data Albania expresses its concern that this System does not guarantee Fair Representation and respect for the Vote, discriminating also against New Alternatives.

We emphasize the need for Electoral Reform where the Parliament commits to a Fairer Electoral System, where the will of the voters is also guaranteed.

The Analysis and the Report are part of the publications in the Open Data Albania Database.

We remain open to questions and committed to deepen our evidence-based analysis.

Tenders in the healthcare sector, 40% of procedures carry risk of clientelism, marked with a red flag

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The apprehension, on corruption charges, of a senior official from the Ministry of Health coincides with grim developments in this sector’s public contracting

AIS, through its Open Procurement Albania database – the Health category, has been monitoring all relevant procurement procedures for years, assessing and marking with a Red Flag (risk of irregularities and clientelism) several of them, which exhibited clear markers of abuse.

Link Database

Link Red Flag listing (risk for clientelism and irregularities)

Indeed, Health constitutes a sector, in which the Red Flag Tenders to the Total Tenders Ratio exceeds 40% of cases (in the case of municipalities, this indicator ranges from 15 to 25%).

However, the phenomenon of deterring officials only in flagrant cases of bribery, does very little to minimize corruption in the public procurement. The analysis, investigation or audit of risky procedures would lead to a better distribution of public money in this sector, which affects and has the potential, to further make the lives of patients in the health system, more vulnerable.

List of tenders of the Ministry of Health for which the Ministry has not yet announced the winner.

Debate and Policy Paper on “Financial Control of State-Owned Corporates” (Standards, Chapter 32 of EU Integration)

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The organization AIS, promoter of Open Data Albania, organized on May 31st, a Debate and Presentation of a Policy Paper on the topic of Financial Control of State-Owned Corporates (SOC – State Owned Corporates).

Financial Control, as in chapter 32, part of Cluster 1, in the process of fulfilling the conditions and standards for Integration.

State Owned Enterprises or Companies are a risky sector in terms of management and control of finances and assets. The Integration Process targets efforts and models which in the SOC sector are far from meritocracy management, effective performance, sound financial management and multi-level auditing.

The Policy Paper, drafted by AIS, was presented by the expert Professor Dr. Lindita Milo (Lati). The document analyzes the situation in the country and presents findings and recommendations for progress. This document was formulated as part of the C1-EU-NPA project, supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tirana.

The complete document in Albanian and English.

Three expert panelists ellaborated and emphasized aspects of the sector, problems and the need for better standards and policies in management and auditing. Specifically:

Prof. Assoc. Dr. Ira GJIKA presented the Findings and Recommendations on Enterprise Management and Auditing

CFA. Irena BEQIRAJ The former Deputy Minister of Finances, presented some typical cases of poor SOC management, issues coming from party influences and the lack of meritocracy at the management level.

Prof. Assoc. Dr. Mateo SPAHO presented the EU models and standards of Financial Control over State Owned Companies, highlighting a far-from-positive situation in the Albanian context and the need for reform, independence and management through administrators with the proper skills and integrity.

At this event, the DataSet with dynamic passports for State Owned Corporates was also presented, a dataset incorporated in the Open Corporates Albania web database. The Director of AIS/Open Data Albania, Ms. Aranita BRAHAJ, explained the importance of information and transparency on the management, performance, legal issues and use of assets of important public companies. With a view to making these companies as transparent as possible, AIS has applied the Open Corporates Albania Open Business Register model. In this database, the information comes for each Company in a well-structured version applying OpenData and LinkData standards. The database for State Owned Companies is the result of the implementation of the project entitled Open Data Access and Transparency over sector exposed to Risk of Corruption, a project supported by Sida, the Sweden International Development Cooperation Agency (March 2021 – February 2024). The purpose of the project itself is to Promote Transparency and Inform the Public through Open Data.

The event was attended by representatives from Institutions Engaged in Financial Control and Auditing of the State Owned Companies Sector, such as

  • Ministry of Finances
  • High State Audit
  • Representatives from the Embassies of European countries
  • Representative of EU Delegation in Tirana
  • Academic representatives from Universities
  • ThinkTank Organizations
  • Media representatives
  • Members of the OpenData Fellowship Youth Network

List of participants.

Findings, Opinions or Recommendations Expressed in this document and in the organized event represent the views of the experts and the AIS organization, and do not necessarily correspond with those of the project partners or supporters.

AIS concerned: Central Election Commission has limited access to Documents and Information on previous Election Periods.

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For many weeks now (February 2023), the CEC official website lost touch with its database before 2020. This database contains Documents, Acts, Reports, Minutes and Decisions that represent the backbone of CEC activity and electoral campaigns developments. Similarly, while Albania gears up for the local elections, the previous 2019 campaign is darkened by a total lack of acts and information on the CEC website.

Although public access to these documents is a legal obligation, those are no longer accessible online for use by interested stakeholders. Specifically, missing from the pre-2020 campaigns are all:

  • Audit Reports and Financial Reports of electoral subjects and political parties;
  • Voter Turnover in each electoral zone;
  • De-criminalization Forms filled out by individuals running in the 2019 campaign;
  • Decisions of the Central Election Commission;
  • Complaints/Appeals and Minutes of institutional sessions;
  • Acts and Documents.

While CEC proclaimed initiatives to apply information technology, digitalization, and online reporting during 2023, it seems that website hosting and interoperability with the earlier database is a challenge that puts a big question mark on CEC’s capacities and will.

AIS is an organization that promotes access, transparency, and information. AIS holds that Data is Power and data must be made available to all stakeholders.

AIS filed a complaint on this denied access in the section Report of CEC website, and finds really concerning this shrank access to information on previous electoral campaigns and developments.

Truncated access, missing transparency, and irresponsibility in managing official documents represent a very risky aspect of how access to information may be used unilaterally.

We work on Civic Education – Youth Empowerment in Anticorruption

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Empowering young people against corruption – this is the goal for which we created a group of young people, part of the OpenDataYouthNetwork, a year ago. In October, this team was trained on several important topics in anti-corruption analysis. Civic education and strengthening FactChecking Models on accountability are two important aspects of the organization’s activities and projects.  
  The work with young people and the expansion of the Network will continue with other events such as trainings, forums, individual sessions, publications by young people themselves on the web – FollowTheMoney blog. This network is the product of our work in implementing the Open Data Access and Transparency over sectors exposed to Risk of Corruption Project, supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

StartUp Datathon Albania, Data Marathon by AIS, promoter of Open Data

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AIS returns to its tradition of Datathon and Hackathon Albania. This November we started working with a group of young people for the DataThon that will be held in January 2023. DataThon comes from the words Data and Marathon. They are events where people meet to work together on an idea and to collect, analyze, visualize and communicate findings related to data.

AIS has previously held DataThon and HackaThon in Tirana. This time DataThon is an event that will engage young members from the OpenDataFellowship Network. This Youth Network was created to increase the capacities and skills of young people in anti-corruption issues. The issue to be addressed this time is the finance of political parties, their volume, structure, and visualized forms of research. For more information on DataThon Albania 2023, a publication will be prepared on AIS website.

Treasury transactions, 10 years of open data for each expenditure, 1900 budgetary institutions

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How does the Government Spend the Taxpayers’ Money? Our well-structured Treasury Transactions database enables the monitoring of all payments that state institutions make to third parties. Currently, we have data on each payment made in 10 years. The data is obtained through the access to information from the Treasury Department. They are placed in a system where anyone can easily find, use and reuse them in real time.

The system also offers a search engine through filters, where transactions are divided by institution, beneficiaries, value, expenditure category, payment date or invoice number. This database discloses to the public information about how taxpayers’ money is spent; where the funds are allocated; who benefits and how much is paid for certain projects and programs.

Open Data and Gender Reports, Social-economic Data on Gender Balance

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The Open Data Albania portal continuously publishes data related to Gender Balance Statistics in the country. Articles are listed under the Gender Relations topic. The latest data published are related to the gender balance in sectors and fields such as Demography, Education, Public Representation and Penal Policy by gender groups.

The data assist in identifying ratios and development of gender groups, revealing also economic and social imbalances. The gender pay gap in different employment sectors, as well as the data on Penal Policy and Sentences imposed by courts on women compared to the total number of sentences imposed for crimes in the country – are two indicators carefully presented during November.

OpenData Youth Fellowship Retreat October 22nd and 23rd, 2022

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The organization AIS / Open Data Albania has been working with a group of students and young professionals for a year, creating a Fellowship program for empowering young people in Anti-corruption matters. This includes events held during the year such as work sessions; discussion forums; internships with the organization’s team; training and other networking events. On the weekend of October 22nd and 23rd, members of the youth team traveled to several districts of the country on a Retreat. The event contains   – Happy Hours and Networking – Presentation of the Organization’s Work Strategy Youth Objectives – StartUp DataThon Albania  

  • The itinerary was organized with the cooperation of Fation Plaku Photography, author of Homeland Albania.

  The young participants areas of significance for nature; culture, tradition and urban development of the country, such as: – Nivica, the view over the Canyon – Peshtura waterfall – Labova, the beautiful area of Lunxhëria with religious and cultural monuments dating back to the 5th century. – accommodation at Bujtina Maria, a model of agritourism and tourism business initiative, where we presented AIS new Work Strategy, with a focus on civic education and young people. – Archaeological Park #Antigone. – Peshtan, visit to the Italian-Greek war museum, During the event, the Work Program was also finalized for the next event of the Network, which is DataThon Albania Financing of Political Parties, an event that will be held in December 2022.

Video Realizuar me Dron nga Fation Plaku Tetor 2022 Kanion Nivice
Video Realizuar me Dron nga Fation Plaku Tetor 2022 Parku Arkeologjik Antigone
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Working with young people and empowering them against corruption is part of the implementation of the Open Data, Access and Transparency over sectors exposed to Risk of Corruption Project. The project is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. One of the components of the project is Youth Empowerment against Corruption – Citizen Education, Improve Fact-Checking Models.