TIRANA, Jan 29, 2025 – The Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPAK) has outlined its plan to investigate and prevent electoral crimes for the May 11, 2025 elections. Under the direction of Chief Prosecutor Altin Dumani, the plan includes the creation of a Task Force, field monitoring and investigations, and a special platform for citizens and institutional reports, featuring an emergency hotline, online reporting, and email access.
Additionally, a working group within SPAK, consisting of financial investigators and other experts, will oversee the use of public funds and investments, ensuring that special subjects do not misuse resources during the election period.
These measures are undertaken to serve the implementation of SPAK’s own “Strategy for the Investigation and Prevention of Electoral crimes for the Parliamentary elections 2025.” The improvement of standards for the investigation of electoral crime and an approach focused on prevention of these crimes are also among the key objectives outlined in SPAK’s Strategic Plan 2024-2027.
Albanian civil society organizations that monitor electoral processes welcomed the establishment of the task force three months in advance of the elections citing previous reports that documented the occurrence of electoral crimes well before the election day itself. They called upon SPAK to put in place strong safeguards for the anonymity of citizens providing reports and materials of abuse.
The opposition harbors deep skepticism towards this specific task force and its mandate. According to the Democratic Party, SPAK has done very little against electoral crimes. Members of the DP commented that SPAK needs to investigate electoral crimes consistently and not only during electoral campaigns whereas the Freedom Party representatives had a more extreme reaction blaming SPAK of serving as a cover for the SP wrongdoings hence enjoys almost no trust in this realm of action
No distinguishing line between crime and politics
The influence of organized crime in elections has been a significant challenge to Albanian democracy, particularly over the last decade. High-profile cases have exposed the involvement of criminal networks in both local and national electoral processes. Most recently an MP from the Socialist Party J. Cyrbja was arrested in late October last year under charges that brought by SPAK of committing active corruption during elections as well as providing illicit assistance to crime networks.
Election monitoring reports have also highlighted the strong links between organized crime and politics. The list of the region of Durres is particularly a symbol of the phenomenon, having been marked by notorious crime clans.
The Albanian parliament, under pressure from the international community approved in 2015 the so called ‘de-criminalization law’ with clear provisions for individuals convicted of crimes to be barred from holding office. As a result, a significant number of MPs and mayors lost their seat. However, many others have escaped the accountability despite numerous well proved allegations.
Blatant misuse of state resources
Albanian media have already started to expose some of the misuse of state resources in the current electoral campaign, including efforts to mobilize the Albanian diaspora, which will vote for the first time this year. Allegations involve the misuse of embassy staff and private companies receiving public contracts in exchange for financial support in organizing large electoral meetings abroad.
Additionally, there are many reports that the wide network of “patronage assistants” of the majority party is collecting intensively data about migrants using their family members at home and trying to exert pressure on their vote.
