TIRANA, Oct 1 /ATA/ The Central Election Commission, together with the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the Rule of Law Center at the University of Helsinki, organized a roundtable and consultation titled “Balance Between Self-Regulation and Legal Regulation in Election Campaigns, Ahead of the 2025 Parliamentary Elections.”
The aim of this event was to discuss two different but also complementary approaches regarding online campaigns: self-regulation and legal regulation. The conference looked into how self-regulation and greater legal regulation can run in parallel to support the development of transparent and fair electoral campaigns in Albania.
Along with the State Commissioner of Elections, Ilirjan Celibashi, Tuija Brax, Director of the Rule of Law Center at the University of Helsinki, Sam Van Der Staak, Regional Program Director for Europe at International IDEA, and Kreshnik Radoniqi, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Kosovo, international experts, representatives of state institutions, political parties, and both international and local civil society participated and exchanged ideas and experiences.
The rapid development of social media over the past decade have changed the way electoral campaigns are conducted.
The rapid pace of digitalization in political campaigns has raised an important dilemma: Can transparency and fairness in electoral campaigns be achieved through self-regulation or regulation, and can (or should) the legal framework keep up with the challenges presented by an ever-evolving environment?
The participants agreed that voluntary, self-regulatory, and non-competitive mechanisms should be seen as complementary to the regulatory instruments in the hands of oversight agencies/institutions, and that cross-institutional cooperation is necessary to address complex challenges.
In addition to discussing the experiences from the 2024 European Parliament elections and some EU member states, the joint initiative with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for a Code of Conduct in online electoral campaigns was also addressed.
In Albania, together with the Rule of Law Center of Finland and the National Democratic Institute, International IDEA is drawing on past experiences from the Dutch and European elections to develop a similar code of conduct ahead of the 2025 parliamentary elections.
/sm/
