Albanian Political Parties Hand In Financial Reports Amid Alledged Russian Financing of Opposition Party

Tirana, March 15 (Tirana Echo) – Albania’s political parties have handed in today their annual financial reports, following allegations of Russian money used to lobby on behalf of opposition Democratic Party in the US.

Days after Mother Jones, a US based portal, published a lengthy investigation about a mysterious Russian-linked firm that hired a former Trump campaign aide named Nick Muzin to work in the United States to help the right-wing Democratic Party of Albania during the country’s 2017 parliamentary elections, the Central Elections Commission of Albania (CEC), called on political parties to come out clean with their financial expenditure.

Today, the Socialist Party (SP), the Democratic Party (DP) and the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) have submitted their 2017 financial reports following the Central Election Commission’s call.

According to newspapers, the SP’s report shows the party generated ALL200ml (ca. €1.5mln), of which ALL40mln (ca. €300,000) from membership quotas and ALL14mln (ca. €105,000) from unspecified donors.

The socialists declared they spent ALL89mln (ca. €670,000) for the general electoral campaign of 2017 and ALL6.8 (ca. €51,000) for consultancy contracts. The democrats, on the other hand, are reported to have spent ALL32.8mln (ca. €246,000) for the general campaign. The SMI has declared ALL7.8mln (ca. €58,000) from 57 donors, most of whom are SMI MPs and leaders, including current Albanian President Ilir Meta, who last year chaired the SMI, before handing over to his wife Monika Kryemadhi, after assuming the presidential role.

Albania is under heavy criticism and pressure from the EU and the US over party financing and the general lack of transparency of its financial transactions.

Last year, the European parliament called on Albanian authorities to swiftly “finalize its review of the electoral code while addressing all previous OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and strengthening the transparency of party financing and the integrity of the electoral process”.