The electoral campaign for the parliamentary polls due on April 25 been on for quite some time, but in the past two weeks political parties have stepped up their game, as well as their expenditures.

Muharrem Çaka, a member of the Central Election Commission regulatory body, said that the Electoral Code stipulates that political parties must strictly abide by laws on electoral funding.

During an interview on Euronews Albania, he explained that subjects must follow four funding models.

“Article 86 of the Electoral Code sees that there must be four funding sources: Advance funds by the state budget for registered political parties; the own income of the electoral subject; various donations earned from the electoral subject and their candidates; loans and credits borrowed by the party, or its candidates, as per the law”.

Accordingly, political parties must report their expenses within 60 days after the termination of the campaign, and in case of violations, they will either be subjected to a fine or taken to court.

Dritan Taulla, an electoral observer from KRIIK Albania said that besides the parties’ expenditures on various social media, there are some third parties who are funding for advertising specific political subjects, citing an example on Facebook.

“From last March, it is possible to see how much a page has spent for advertising on Facebook. At least, three pages publish ads that are funded by a third party on Facebook. One was opened in January 2021, another in November 2020, and a third, which had a lot of followers but had been inactive, but has now returned. There are people behind these pages that are giving a hand to political parties”, explained Taulla.

The executive director of the Albanian Media Council, Koloreto Cukali, emphasized that the main focus of online campaigns is “avoiding journalists”, pushing “propaganda straight to the public”.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

• Technology in the April 25 elections, cameras in every voting centre to monitor process
• Election monitoring for April 25, ODIHR: One of the issues, the recent changes in the electoral code were quick
• Vote-buying and selling, Swedish ambassador concerned as general elections near