Parliament calls on SPAK to focus more on investigations of electoral crimes
In its annual resolution addressed to the Special Structure against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK), the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Issues, Public Administration, and Human Rights recommended that SPAK pay greater attention to vote-buying as the most frequent electoral crime still encountered in Albania.
Why is this relevant
Despite significant progress through reforms and improved monitoring over the years, vote-buying continue to be a concern during elections in Albania.
Context
The recommendation was made in the context of Parliament’s annual resolutions issued for all of Albania’s independent institutions, based on their activity reports from the previous year and Parliament’s expectations for the following year. Lawmakers issued a total of 12 recommendations for SPAK, emphasizing their expectation that the Structure needs to initiate investigations more proactively, responding to indications of criminal acts, especially when such acts are exposed by the media.
The recommendation on vote-buying and electoral crimes is particularly pertinent in view of the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2025. While the scale of the phenomenon is difficult to quantify, what is particularly concerning is that even isolated cases of vote-buying that become public undermine public confidence in the electoral process and are often exploited by losing parties and candidates to challenge the election outcomes in their entirety. For this reason, Albanian authorities, in collaboration with the country’s international partners and organizations such as the OSCE, have been working diligently to address the issue.
One of the most notable cases of vote-buying occurred during the 2023 local elections when the opposition candidate for Mayor of Himara, Fredi Beleri, was caught in flagrante two days before election day distributing money in exchange for votes.
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