Local elections/ Celibashi: Government must guarantee the administration’s impartiality! Reform should address problems and OSCE/ODIHR recommendations

The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Ilirjan Celibashi, called for concrete measures to guarantee the impartiality of the public administration during the process for the May 9 local elections, as well as to prevent the use of state functions and resources in favor of political entities.

In a communication to the media, Celibashi stressed that the measures taken by the government must be effective and prevent not only illegal interference in the electoral process, but also any situation that could create reasonable doubts about state influence on competition among political parties.

“The government must take measures to guarantee the impartiality of the public administration and to prevent the use of public functions for electoral purposes and the use of state resources and assets in favor of electoral subjects. These measures, as also recommended in international observation reports, must be effective, avoiding not only illegal interference but also situations that create reasonable doubts about state influence on electoral competition,” Celibashi said.

Speaking about the necessary changes to the Electoral Code, the head of the CEC mentioned the importance of addressing the problems identified in previous electoral processes, as well as the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations.

“Regarding changes to the Electoral Code for the May 9 elections, it is important that the problems of previous electoral processes and the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations be addressed through amendments to the Electoral Code. Among the issues requiring intervention are those related to the role of the state in the electoral process in general and the behavior of the public administration in this process, the rules on financing of electoral subjects and control of electoral campaign spending, the organization and functioning of second- and third-level election commissions, and the improvement of vote counting and result procedures. The changes should aim for clearer rules, more functional administration, and more effective control mechanisms. It is important that the electoral reform should have addressed some of these issues, but there is also little time for political parties to work on addressing some of them,” he added.

Further, he also added the importance of harmonizing the Electoral Code with the new territorial division.

“The adoption of the new law on administrative-territorial division, as far as has been made public, requires harmonization of the provisions of the Electoral Code with the new territorial organization. Provisions related to the way of electing municipal council members, the criteria and, so to speak, the structure of representation of regions or different units within a local unit should be reviewed. Even the law on the new territorial division, in terms of preparing the electoral process, is somewhat delayed. But it remains important for parties to engage in making the relevant changes to the electoral code to enable those requirements they have considered related to local government representation to be different from what they are today,” he added.