{"id":52840,"date":"2023-05-15T15:46:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T13:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=52840"},"modified":"2023-05-16T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T10:16:09","slug":"osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Preliminary report of OSCE-ODIHR: Albanian local elections were well-administered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The OSCE-ODIHR international observing mission published the preliminary report on the Albanian local elections, held on May 14<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The report concludes that the elections were generally well-administered, competitive, and held with the participation of key political forces, but the process was characterized by continued polarization between the main political parties and deep division within the opposition.<\/p>\n<p>Even the head of the ODIHR observer mission, Audrey Glover stated at the first press conference that the process had a problem, with the focus of the campaign not on the candidates, but on the political forces.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>PART OF THE OSCE-ODIHR REPORT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 14 May local elections were generally well-administered, competitive, and held with the participation of the key political forces, but the process was characterized by continued polarization between the main political parties and deep division within the opposition. Contestants could campaign freely, but issues of importance for local communities barely featured in the campaign. Cases of misuse of state resources at central and local level, claims of pressure on public-sector workers and voters, and allegations of vote buying were of concern. The Central Election Commission (CEC) organized its work in a transparent and efficient manner, but the stability of lower-level commissions was negatively affected by frequent replacements of members by the nominating parties. Rules for political coverage of the campaign strongly favor the main parties, and the frequent use by media of party-produced content in news programmes undermined comprehensive and objective campaign coverage. Election day was generally peaceful but was negatively affected by numerous cases of party interference in the process as well as technical and procedural problems, widespread group voting, and problems with the secrecy of the vote. The vote count was assessed positively overall.<\/p>\n<p>The CEC organized an electronic voting pilot project in 401 of the 5,212 voting centers. The reduced timeframe for implementation of the project did not allow for extensive voter education or independent scrutiny of the new technologies.<\/p>\n<p>The voter lists included some 3.6 million eligible voters, including a significant portion of voters who live abroad. While ODIHR EOM interlocutors expressed overall trust in the accuracy of the voter lists, some stated that the recent reassignment of voters to voting centers could confuse voters on election day. Restrictions on voter registration related to intellectual and psychosocial disability are at odds with OSCE commitments and international obligations.<\/p>\n<p>The fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression were respected, overall, and electoral subjects could campaign freely. Voters were given a distinct choice, with the council elections secondary to the mayoral contests. The visible but rather low-key campaign revolved around the major parties and their national leaders and included confrontational rhetoric and style, at the expense of a campaign focused on local candidates and issues, to the detriment of local democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen of the 17 government ministers and 50 of the 140 members of parliament (35 per cent) are women. Although, the law provides for the 50-per cent gender quota and the placement criteria, which was not always respected. In addition, only 15 of the 144 mayoral candidates were women. Although the Electoral Code prescribes a 30-per cent gender quota, women are underrepresented throughout the election administration, particularly in decision-making positions.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osce.org\/files\/f\/documents\/6\/b\/543561.pdf\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The OSCE-ODIHR international observing mission published the preliminary report on the Albanian local elections, held on May 14th. The report concludes that the elections were generally well-administered, competitive, and held with the participation of key political forces, but the process was characterized by continued polarization between the main political parties and deep division within the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":11305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[150,243,151,1015,2204,716,513],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preliminary report of OSCE-ODIHR: Albanian local elections were well-administered - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preliminary report of OSCE-ODIHR: Albanian local elections were well-administered - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The OSCE-ODIHR international observing mission published the preliminary report on the Albanian local elections, held on May 14th. The report concludes that the elections were generally well-administered, competitive, and held with the participation of key political forces, but the process was characterized by continued polarization between the main political parties and deep division within the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-15T13:46:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-16T10:16:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/osce.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"940\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"626\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nen Si\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nen Si\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nen Si\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/444d280f35e047949b7f0bc08093608f\"},\"headline\":\"Preliminary report of OSCE-ODIHR: Albanian local elections were well-administered\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-15T13:46:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-16T10:16:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/\"},\"wordCount\":534,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/osce.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Kryesor 1\",\"kryesore 1\",\"Kryesoret\",\"local elections\",\"ODIHR\",\"OSCE\",\"report\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Albania\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osce-odihr-preliminary-report-glover-quiet-but-polarized-campaign\/\",\"name\":\"Preliminary report of OSCE-ODIHR: Albanian local elections were well-administered - 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