The Democratic Party’s unclear spending for its lobbing in Washington was heard in the Albanian Parliament as well, and this time not as political accusations by the majority, but by the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Klement Zguri.
“The CEC administration, with my personal support, proposed a detailed verification, in order to guarantee a regular legal process, within the legal framework of the CEC, being an administrative institution. But there was opposition by the members of CEC, due to the unclear legal provisions. The majority of the members rejected the proposition, thus not allowing CEC to start an administrative investigation”, Zguri said.
The Parliament voted a resolution which asks the CEC to draft a method for vetting the spending of political parties inside and outside the country, and to also increase the inspections on electoral campaign funds, but it seems that the CEC will not deliver.
According to Zguri, the Electoral Code and the law for the status of political parties has no provisions that allows them to decide about the competences of CEC in making deeper investigations, especially as regards suspicious transactions of electoral funds abroad, or even to examine complaints related to the finances of political parties.
“By law, CEC verifies the limitations through the financial reports, as provided by the Electoral Code, and publishes them”, Zguri said.
The Chairman stated that CEC cannot establish specialized structures without having clear competences for investigating campaign funding and for examining complaints. He adds that the countries which do, the ones with consolidated institutions, have these competences clearly attributed to them by the law, accompanied by the necessary manpower.
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