Local Government Law. The Election Situation Room against three mandates for locally elected officials

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Tirana, 15 December 2015

The Election Situation Room has asked the Assembly of Albania not to change the original draft law on local government, which restricted the time in office of locally elected officials to 2 mandates.

The latest decision to increase the number of mandates to 3 is considered a regress by the Election Room. According to the representatives of this Room, this decision is a move backward, because all the mayors, who had won a third mandate, were actually criminally prosecuted for abusing their power.

Gerti Shella (INFOCIP): The Albanian experience with the local government dictates today more than ever the need to restrict the mandates of locally elected officials to two. At the beginning of this year only, the mayors of the most important cities, who had already two mandates each, and ran for a third one, were criminally prosecuted for misuse of duty and corruption. Those prosecuted included also tens of commune mayors.

Aranita Brahaj (AIS and Za’Lart Albania 2015): The observation of election situations in the 2015 local government elections showed that where the existing mayors reran in these elections, there were higher expenses and more cases of misused of the public administration for purposes of electoral campaign. The Za’Lart platform received reports from citizens about problems with the transfer of voters’ names on the civil register. In municipalities, where existing mayors reran, there were also cases of pressure being exercised to intimidate voters through public services, violating thus the principles of fair competition among the candidates. Therefore, the law should not tolerate the use of power for such a long time.

Kristaq Kume: We are going to use such restrictive mechanisms such as the restriction of the right to be elected to no more than two mandates”

The changing of the original local government draft law is, according to the Election situation Room, against the recommendations made by the international bodies, as well as against the consultation process with the interest groups.

 

  • Title: Election Room against the draft law: Such draft law produced corruption – Top Channel Albania – News – Lajme

Shekulli Newspaper: Election Room – Mayors should be elected for two mandates only

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Ballkanweb: Election Room – Mayors should be elected for two mandates only

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MAPO Newspaper: Declaration of the Civil Society – Draft Law on Local Government makes negative deviation

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Phases of the Court process of AIS vs Political Parties for transparency on electoral financies

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In the framework of its efforts to promote electoral transparency, AIS has appealed at the Administrative Court of Appeal against the decision of the Court of Tirana to dismiss the organization’s request towards the main political parties PD, PS and LSI (two of them in power) to make available their information on campaign spending and donations. Considering this issue the first court case where an entity / organization submitted a claim against the three main political parties

The Constitution of Albania, which brings one of the best models of access to information on election finances with no restriction, discrimination, bureaucratic procedures and institutional intermediaries.

AIS will continue to advocate the judicial position that political parties are subjects to the Public Law, and obliged, based on the Constitution to provide information to the citizens, media and other civil actors. Also, transparency over campaign spending and donations is an essential aspect of free and fair election.

Chronological steps of the process

  1. Official request sent to the three main parties on 09.06.2015
  2. Request based on the Law on right of information and the Constitution
  3. The three parties didn’t replied to the official request of AIS
  4. AIS addressed the issue to the Commissioner for the Right of Information (Mr. Besnik Dervishi), but the claim was dismissed
  5. AIS sued the three political parties in the Administrative Court
  6. The court held three sessions, in which were present only the representatives of the Socialist Party and the Commissioner for the right of Information
  7. The last session held on November 10th the court decided to dismiss the AIS claim
  8. AIS appealed the decision in the Administrative Court of Appeal,
  9. In this process AIS is represented by the Law firm Gumi & Associates
  10. Appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal
  11. Request for acceleration of adjudication
  12. AIS addresses the Strasbourg Court. Albania does not guarantee trial within a reasonable time (Article 6 of the ECHR)
  13. Administrative Court of Appeal Decision dated 22.11. 2017 with no. 4916 (5236)
  14. AIS addresses the Court of Strasbourg in the absence of both a High Court and a Constitutional Court in the country, asking this court to review the merits of a case, which is now in a process of recourse.

Important Documents of the Court Process:

Request for Information PS                  

Request for Information PD

Request for Information LSI

Complaint for the Commissioner of the right to information

Law suit act                       

Court Call document

Decision of the Administrative Court

Appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal

Request for acceleration of adjudication

AIS Request to Strasbourg Court (PDF)

Decision Administrative Court of Appeal

Request: AIS addresses the Court of Strasbourg in the absence of both a High Court and a Constitutional Court in the country, asking this court to review the merits of a case, which is now in a process of recourse.

 

 

Invitation for participation: Hackathon Albania 2015 “Life in another city”

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Hackathon Albania is a yearly event organized to celebrate Open Data and promote their use, adoption, and development of new exciting apps. This year, the event takes place on December 19th 2015 with the topic “Life in another city”.

The event is open to individuals, analysts; engineers; (storytellers); scout programmers, designers or students able to develop an application based on Open Data.

How to prepare for the Hackathon (Hacker+Marathon) ?

Everyone can collect data about its city or town (not just digital) and create a map or an application. This edition triggers data analyses and applications of various themes affecting different aspects of life in Albanian cities regarding

  • Economy, employment, enterprises
  • Infrastructure including urban distances, buildings, forests ect.
  • Technological development and Internet access in various cities
  • Demography

All those who would like to participate in this event, may be registered for free in the following link : Hackathon Albania 2015  or join the event on the facebook page of the Albanian Institute of Science

Thank you in advance!

AIS against the Draft Law on Defamation

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AIS as a promoter of Open Data Albania joins the call of BIRN Albania against the Draft Law on the Defamation. This draft law foresees and open the way to the imprisonment of journalists. Any claim for criticism or a negative analysis for corruption will serve for stakeholders as a defamation reason. Until our problematic judicial system will prove the claim, who knows how many journalists will be unjustly in jail?

AIS joins the call of BIRN Albania http://www.reporter.al/kriminalizimi-i-shpifjes-ndaj-zyrtareve-te-larte-kercenim-per-demokracine/

The government is asked to withdraw the draft law that criminalize the defamation against the elected high state officials.  http://www.parlament.al/web/pub/pligj_shtese_7895_kodi_penal_24268_1.pdf

Also, AIS urges the Albanian Parliament to not pass this law and invites all civil actors to join the campaign.

AIS in Court against the three main parties: Transparency on Electoral Donors

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The preliminary court session between AIS and the three main political parties will be held on 5th of October 2015 at the Administrative Court of Tirana. AIS has indicted the Socialist Party (PS), the Democratic Party (DP) and the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) to the right of information on their electoral financing.

The main issues to be reviewed are: the AIS complaint and the legal interpretation of whether the public has the right to know in real time who is funding the electoral campaigns of the major parties in the country.

Political Parties request to information: http://ais.al/new/en/political-parties-and-access-to-information-on-electoral-financing-ais-complaint/

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Lawsuit act

Court Call document

AIS participant at the Telecenter Europe Conference

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Albanian Institute of Science as a member of Telecenter Europe Network participated at the annul Conference held in Beograd between 24-25 of September. Issues of employment in the ICT sector at the european market and the capacity building over different target groups were the main focus of the conference. Moreover the conference served to present the online program I-LINC a program that provides online traning for capacity building in the europenan market. The platform targeted mainly young people from East-Europe. The second day of the conference focused more on the e-Participation and the implementation of e-UROPA program, on which Albania is a beneficiary.

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Call for reporters within the Open Spending Initiative

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In addition to our program Money, Government and Politics, AIS invites media representatives and reporters to become part of a network committed to transparency in public spending. Open Spending Initiative consist in creating a network of affirmed local reporters engaged in informing the public about the public expenditures of budgetary institutions in Albania. In this initiative AIS will be involved in the organization of a workshop and a Datathon event with the participation of the network members.

The workshop activity purpose will be:

– Finding sources of information about budget expenditures of municipalities.

– Measure the efficiency of such spending in providing public services

– Identify cases of conflict of interest

While Datathon 2015 will provide for network members the opportunity to present their findings on the governance based on the collection and the visualization of data for the respective municipalities.

A number of ICT tools for transparency in public spending will be targeted and will be available for the citizens, in order to engage them in the monitoring and participation process of budgeting.

The first activity within the initiative will take place on the first week of October, 2015. This network aims to promote Open Data Journalism in Albania.

 

Reporters are kindly invited to express their interest upon the registration form:

 

registerFor further information on the initiative contact us at: [email protected]

Political parties and access to information on electoral financing. AIS complaint

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In the framework of Money, Transparency and Government program, our organization, the Albanian Institute of Sciences is engaged in publishing and visualizations of the data about Electoral Financing , Transactions of the State Budget to the Political Parties, as well as the Party Donors’ List for the campaigns. Following up on this engagement, at the beginning of the electoral campaign of 2015 our organization officially addressed three of the main subjects in this campaign that is the Socialist Party, the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration Party. Through this request we intended to inform the public in real time on the donors, amounts of funds donated and the expenses. In more specific terms, in this request we wanted them to provide us:

  1. The list of donors of non-public funds obtained between 21 May and 21 June 2015 and which exceed the amount of 100 000 (one hundred thousand) ALL or equivalent amount converted into services or items;
  2. The list of all expenses done since 21 May 2015 with annual funds received from the 2015 State Budget.

Although the request was duly sent and was duly received through official mail, we never got an answer on the subject matter of the request. Considering the Political Parties to be important public players, and the transparency with their finances of a particular importance, we have also addressed the Commissioner on the Right to Infomation and Protection of Personal Data with a complaint on the relevant subjects.

We are sending attached a copy of the official requests as well as the complaint sent to the institution.

Our request is based on article, 9, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, article 87/1, article 89 and 90 of the Electoral Code, and on law no. 119/2014 “On the Right to Information” article 2, letter c, article 3 and article 11.

Wishing to give our contribution in establishing the democratic culture of transparency, in the coming weeks or months, in cooperation with one of the best law firms in dealing with public law cases and with expertise in electoral legislation, we will address the institutions and the judiciary with the aim of getting a doctrinal interpretation and regulation of the Right to Information on Electoral Financing. Although the campaing is over, and the auditing reports of the electoral subjects may be published, we deem it appropriate to have a doctrinal interpretation of whether the political parties are subject to the right of information, as well as whether they should make publicly available in real time the data on the campaign donors and campaign expenses.

Having a high regard on the role of the traditional media in covering issues related to electoral transparency and developments, I invite you to follow up on this initiated complaint/case. Should you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 Please find attached a copy of the Complaint addressed to the Commissioner on the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data and the request addressed to the Political Subjects.

Request for information PD

Request for information LSI

Complaint for the Commissioner of the right to information

Request for information PS

Albanian Institute of Science is looking for a Program Manager-Deadline Extended

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Deadline: 15th of September 2015

The Albanian Institute of Science (AIS), a local organization registered with the District Court of Tirana, is looking for a Program Manager. The period of employment for the selected candidate will be until 1st of January 2016, including two weeks of working test period. The renewal of the employment contract will be closely related with his/her work results for the whole period of contract duration. Candidates should have working experience in a similar position. Those interested may send their CV (including no more than 350 words) to [email protected] until 15th of September 2015. The CV must contain a description of the candidate’s previous experience as a Program Manager. Only candidates shortlisted through a CV-based selection will be invited for an interview. The description of the role and responsibilities of the post are given below:

 Program Manager – roles and responsibilities include:

  • Manages horizontally across the functional projects involved with the program
  • Ensures that cross-project work effort remains feasible from the organization’s standpoint and realizes the benefits
  • Works with the Executive Director and Board of Directors in writing concept notes, project ideas and project proposals within the program
  • Gets involved in setting new objectives and reviewing existing objectives
  • Coordinates activities across projects
  • Oversees the integration and reuse of interim work products and results
  • Involved in integration activities, negotiates changes in plans and communicates them

Broshura e rrjetit Unite-IT në gjuhën Shqipe

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Unite-IT  është rrjet joformal i përfshirjes dixhitale të profesionistëve (mësuesit dhe trajnerët, ekspertët, mjekët, biznesi, hartuesit e politikave, akademikë) që synojnë bashkimin e Evropës përmes Fuqizimit dixhital. Unite-IT  krijon një hapësirë bashkëpunimi për anëtarët e saj që të angazhohen në mënyrë të hapur dialogu, ndajnë  përvoja dhe burime ndërtojnë kontakte mes njëri-tjetrin dhe të krijojnë partneritete.

Kjo do të rrisë kapacitetet e tyre dhe ngritjen e vetëdijes në mesin e shoqërisë në lidhje me potencialet parealizuara të kompetencave dixhitale për përfshirje ekonomike dhe sociale.

Broshurën  me informacion më të detajuar për Unite-IT e gjeni si më poshtë:

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