With under a month until Albania heads to the polls to elect mayors and regional councillors, a total of 132 political parties are present in the country, with more than 24,000 candidates in the running. R
The May 2023 municipal elections are of particular importance as they will be the first local vote since the opposition boycotted the elections in 2019, seeing the ruling Socialist Party sweep to victory in almost all municipalities.
Figures from the Central Electoral Commission published this week found there were at least 132 political parties in the country, but there were big issues regarding financial statements and registered addresses.
The 2022 annual report from the commission evaluated the financial statements of registered parties, but it showed that for the majority, the process was unsuccessful due to a lack of correct addresses.
At the start of the year, a letter was sent to political parties to inform them of their obligation to submit annual financial reports. Of the 132 letters sent, 37 received it and 95 were returned due to incorrect addresses.
As for the audit of financial statements, the commission engaged four experts to carry out the work, but out of 132 potential reports, only 20 were completed for the calendar year of 2021. A further two parties said they did not have any income or expenses in 2021, eight did not respond, five refused to cooperate, and 17 had zero financial statements.
But this did not stop a proliferation of candidates, with 23,646 councillor candidates and 145 mayoral candidates vying for 3,222 and 61 positions, respectively.
According to data processed by BIRN, 40 of the 132 parties have registered candidates meaning that 0.65% of voters will also be in the running.
BIRN’s data found big discrepancies between the number of candidates in some areas versus the number of voters. For example, in Kelcyra, a small district in the south, there are 357 candidates up for election with just 9,308 voters; a ratio of one candidate for every 27 voters. It was a similar story in Klos, with one candidate for every 28 voters.
It also appears that some parties have filled their candidate list with family members, with as many as four or five candidates sharing surnames in the same municipality.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
Source: euractiv.com
