EU Ambassador meets youth: “Careful of vote buying offers”

“During these nine months in Albania I have understood that words are spread very quickly. One of them might be the vote purchase. The methods are by making pressure to vote in exchange of jobs. This is offensive for citizens. We are also working against family votes. We are monitoring everything closely, and you will be able to judge us if we have been right or not. The responsibility lies in this country, not in foreign actors. Buying votes is a criminal act. It is not something sophisticated, but a crime. It is unacceptable. What we need is evidence. We cannot react based on gossip. If there is evidence, they will be in the report which will be about the quality of the elections”, Vlahutin declared.

Vlahutin was careful about the incriminated candidates.

“There is no law yet to tell us who can run in public official posts and who not. I think that this is a personal obligation of the people that you want to vote. This topic has provoked many debates here. We will see the first result of the legislation which will make it clear who can run for public posts. Not only that, but also for those who can be skeptic about the candidates. We will take more information about them. We believe that you would not want to elect the candidates who have done things against the law”, Vlahutin declared.

The EU ambassador explained why foreign diplomats did not make public the names of the candidates suspected of having a criminal past.

“I know ambassadors have been expected to make their names public. But this is not possible because we are ambassadors here, we are not elected t govern Albania. We cannot help by saying that the list might have problematic candidates. But the responsibility falls on the political parties, the law enforcing agencies, investigative journalists, non-government organizations, and finally the responsibility is even yours, to find information about these persons”, Vlahutin declared.

Ambassador Vlahutin gave these comments from the Luigj Gurakuqi university in Shkoder, during a conversation with students, who, she said, weill watch the elections in Shkoder on June 21st.

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