Drafting a law on the Financing of Political Parties is considered necessary by political actors and experts, but insufficient to restore trust in electoral reform and in the electoral process as a whole.
After a two-month deadlock, political parties returned to the electoral reform table in mid-February, with a compromise but also deep mistrust. The first agreed product is a separate law on the Financing of Political Parties – presented simultaneously as a necessity and an obligation stemming from negotiations with the European Union.
Damian Gjiknuri, the Socialist co-chair of the electoral reform commission, considers the law important for the democratization and transparency of political parties.
“Financing of political parties takes on great importance because through transparency, proper use and accountability of resources and expenditures, the groundwork is created for a more democratic party that functions based on rules,” he told BIRN.
However, drafting the new law appears insufficient to heal the mistrust of opposition political parties toward the reform and the electoral process.
“It is difficult for a law on the Financing of Political Parties to be enough to build trust in the reform when there has been no consensual reform for 13 years,” said Oerd Bylykbashi, the opposition co-chair of the commission.
“If we consider the background of political and institutional developments, including the ‘Balluku’ case and the developments surrounding it, the difficulty becomes even clearer,” he added.
In Albania’s relentless political struggle, so-called electoral reforms often represent short moments of political truce. However, the products adopted during the past decade have largely been considered legal patchwork, failing to guarantee proper electoral standards.
Beyond the law on party financing, the commission’s calendar foresees the completion by the end of July of a revision of the Electoral Code to address recommendations related to campaign monitoring, the administration of the electoral process and the misuse of state resources during elections.
However, election experts in Albania call for deeper interventions to prevent violations of electoral integrity.
“Instead of a thorough and inclusive process, the political class has tended to orient itself toward minimalist and last-minute solutions, which are rhetorically presented as reform achievements,” Dritan Taulla, deputy chair of KRIK Albania, told BIRN.
“Some of the problems affecting the integrity of elections cannot be addressed only through amendments to the Electoral Code, but require coordinated interventions in the legal framework for Political Parties, the public administration, or through a dedicated law on political financing, so that regulation becomes truly effective and enforceable,” he added.
What Needs to Change?
Consultation roundtable on the law on Financing of Political Parties. Photo: LSA.
Since the 1990s, elections in Albania have been monitored by OSCE-ODIHR missions, whose recommendations serve as a roadmap for amendments to the Electoral Code.
In its latest report on the May 11, 2025 elections, which gave Prime Minister Edi Rama an unprecedented fourth mandate, the OSCE-ODIHR mission was particularly critical of the use of state resources as an advantage for the ruling party.
“The elections were marked by widespread misuse of public resources and institutional power by the ruling party, while numerous reports of pressure on public sector employees and other voters, as well as cases of intimidation, were concerning,” the report said.
According to election expert Kristaq Kume, the main task of the electoral reform commission is to address a significant number of OSCE-ODIHR recommendations regarding elections held between 2017 and 2025 that have yet to be reflected in legislation.
“The results of these elections have highlighted the need for substantial changes in legislation, with the objective of reducing the space for negative effects that undermine the functioning of representative democracy,” Kume said.
Beyond the law on Financing and amendments to the Electoral Code, political parties also agree that the time has come to review the law on Political Parties, although the current political climate could become an obstacle.
According to Bylykbashi, the lack of guarantees in the current law was used by Prime Minister Edi Rama during 2022-2024 to allegedly keep hostage the party logo and the right to compete in elections.
“There is a need for mechanisms that push parties toward democratization and collegiality within parties, but without increasing state interference in political life,” Bylykbashi said.
Gjiknuri of the Socialist Party also expressed openness to such discussions.
“This belongs to a future discussion, if there is political will from the main political forces in the country,” he said.
New parliamentary parties remain skeptical about reforms led by the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party, arguing that they aim not to solve problems but to eliminate opportunities for new political forces.
“Financing of political parties by oligarchs and organized crime, as well as the control of major media during election campaigns, are the main reasons why Albania does not have free and fair elections,” said Agron Shehaj of the Mundësia Party, adding that none of the major parties intends to solve these problems.
Arlind Qori of the Bashkë Movement also believes the commission’s goal is not democratic elections but the preservation of the PS-PD duopoly in Albanian politics.
“To leave the extremely important issue of regulating party financing in the hands of these parties is like hanging livers around wolves’ necks and expecting them not to eat them,” he said.
For Adriatik Lapaj, leader of the “Shqipëria Bëhet” movement, the two major parties view public funding of parties as “secondary”, even though they have influenced its abusive distribution.
“Albania needs a law that ensures real financing for parliamentary parties and prevents illicit funding,” Lapaj said, also stressing that the law on Political Parties is outdated.
A “Toxic” System
State Election Commissioner Ilirjan Celibashi. Photo: LSA.
Since the early 1990s, Albania has changed five different electoral systems without managing to organize truly free and fair elections.
The foundations of the current regional proportional system were laid with the constitutional amendments of 2008 following an agreement between Rama and Berisha.
However, the system has since been modified unilaterally, removing coalitions and enabling partial opening of candidate lists.
According to Bylykbashi, the current system has now become a toxic hybrid.
“In any case, this current system approved by Rama in 2020 without the opposition’s consensus must be replaced, because it is one-sided and a toxic hybrid for pluralism that damages competition,” Bylykbashi said, favoring a majoritarian system.
Despite the importance of the electoral system, the opposition argues that it cannot be blamed for all electoral problems in Albania.
“The Achilles’ heel is the capture of elections by the state, the involvement of organized crime in elections and vote buying. These suffocate any electoral system,” Bylykbashi stressed.
Expert Kristaq Kume also supports revising the electoral system, arguing that it has already produced distortions in Albania’s political landscape.
“We only need to refer to the results produced by the regional proportional system applied in Albania since the 2009 parliamentary elections. Although the system is proportional, whose essence is to produce a representative outcome, in Albania it has produced governing majorities of a single party and even near-qualified majorities,” he said.
Calls for changing the system are nevertheless viewed with caution by Socialist co-chair Damian Gjiknuri.
“Electoral systems are not recommended to be changed frequently every time elections end or based on political impulses from new political forces that continuously demand revisions,” Gjiknuri said.
“Electoral systems are sovereign constitutional choices of each country, and there are no specific recommendations or standards for them,” he added.
New parliamentary parties are also preparing their own proposals, despite their distrust toward the intentions of the two major parties.
According to Agron Shehaj of the Mundësia Party, the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party will once again do what they have done for the past 35 years.
“The public will discover it when their proposals come out, such as a Senate and reducing the number of MPs. This is why the Mundësia Party refuses to become part of their deals,” Shehaj said.
Arlind Qori of the Bashkë Movement expressed a similar stance, describing the PS-PD tandem as a “rotten duopoly”.
“Electoral legislation has always been the product of unfair deals between the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party. Under these circumstances, I expect nothing good from negotiations between them,” he said.
Adriatik Lapaj calls on the Democratic Party in opposition to openly distance itself from the current electoral system, while expressing support for a national proportional system with open lists.
“Albanians need the democratization of the country and the overthrow of the corrupt and over-extended power of Edi Rama. This is the test for the Democratic Party,” Lapaj said, insisting on opening the competition.
(BIRN)