Albania Struggles to Make Parties Declare Election Finances

Albania’s main political parties have repeatedly come under fire for not declaring all their campaign spending, and it’s widely accepted that the current system of declaration and audit needs reform.
Albania’s main political parties have repeatedly come under fire for not declaring all their campaign spending, and it’s widely accepted that the current system of declaration and audit needs reform.
Ben Andoni BIRN Tirana

Edi Rama, Albanian Prime Minister and the leader of ruling Socialists, speaks during a rally in Tirana.
“The expenses that parties formally declare are up to 10 times smaller than the real electoral expenses,” Afrim Krasniqi, a political scientist and director of the Institute of Political Studies, told BIRN.

To back his assertion, Krasniqi cited field monitoring conducted by the organisation that he led during the 2013 and 2015 elections, as well as data which the Institute of Political Studies compared to the financial reports that the parties themselves submitted to the Central Election Commission.

As parties get ready for parliamentary elections on June 25, BIRN analysed financial reports submitted by the three main parties for the 2013 and 2015 elections: the centre-left Socialist Party of Albania, PS, the centre-right Democratic Party of Albania, PD, and the social-democratic Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI.

The analysis included data provided by the State Police about the average number of electoral rallies carried out during both years. Results showed that the real money spent on the campaigns was being concealed.