Accusations for vote purchase, Dickens: A careful analyze in the Strasbourg report

“The issue has been raised by the two main parties before the Election Day. These accusations include financial payments, exchange of food for votes, removing identity cards of some people and returning them later. These were as accusations. However, after we analyze what our observers have seen, we will take in consideration the evidence we have collected on terrain. Many are related to th big number of people who lurk around the voting center. They give the impression of a well-organized campaign for making sure that their supporters are there. This is not bad, but these accusations will be analyze carefully in October, in Strasbourg”, Dickens declared.

Dickens valued the legal structure of the elections by considering them another positive example. He underlined that there is still much to do.

“Except some incidents, the campaign has been peaceful and civilized. A normal campaign as regards European standards. However, there are a series of issues that we, as congress, do not consider right. We think that it is problematic that the voters’ lists have still the names of 1 million people who live de facto abroad. There is room for electoral fraud and manipulation”, Dickens declared.

As for the domination of the campaign by the party leaders, he declared: “The personal involvement of leadership figures has left the candidates in shadows. The topics that were discussed were of a national level, not for the specific municipalities. They need a clear distribution of roles. The empowering of the local government role is key for progress. We hope that the reform for the local election has started and will contribute for normalizing the situation. The Congress is ready to help Albania in this aspect”.

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