TIRANA, March 21 /ATA/-By I. Vata/ – Albania needs to implement a thorough and timely electoral reform, which would address the well-known ODIHR recommendations, the Head of the OSCE Presence in Tirana, Ambassador Bernd Borchardt, said in his remarks at a meeting with co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Committee on Electoral Reform of the Assembly on Wednesday.
At the meeting hosted by the OSCE Presence in Albania, the two co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Committee on Electoral Reform, namely Bledar Çuçi dhe Oerd Bylykbashi, briefed the international community representatives on the progress of election reform and answered to their questions.
At the start of the meeting, the OSCE Ambassador Bernd Borchardt commended the dedication and commitment of the Ad-Hoc Committee to launch the electoral reform, underlining that a thorough and timely reform was needed to address the OSCE recommendations and tackle other key issues.
“As ODIHR pointed out in its 2017 report, the Committee should prioritize work to address persistent issues of vote-buying. Widespread allegations of vote-buying have affected public trust and there is a need of political will to counteract the phenomenon. We are paying special attention to the cases of electoral violations reported to the Prosecutor’s Office. The three cases which have gone to court so far are a start, but only a start,” Borchardt said.
With regard to new voting technologies, Borchardt noted that best practices indicate that decisions to use new voting technologies should not be made immediately applicable to the next elections, but should be test first.
“We have repeatedly suggested doing a test run in limited areas during the local elections 2019.” he said.
Likewise, Borchardt underlined that “electronic voting may lower some risks for elections, but they will create new risks, for instance the risk of hacking if this is done online. It is up to Albania to decide whether the cost for this kind of voting is justifiable. From our point of view, we have been encouraging the use of electronic counting, which costs not very much and would be a contribution towards the de-politicization of the election administration.”
Regarding the issue of the right to vote for Albanian voters living abroad, the OSCE Ambassador said “a big issue at the moment is out of country voting, where it is a big challenge to find the right balance between extending the right to vote to eligible voters living abroad and ensuring the integrity and security of the vote.”
Borchardt renewed the OSCE Presence’s readiness to together with our colleagues from ODIHR and from other international organizations to support the electoral reform in Albania.
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