Author: Denis Tahiri
Not far from the parliamentary elections, while in Tirana politics continues as always, in the suburbs of the capital, citizens are enjoying small victories such as a suddenly paved road.
Agron is one of the beneficiaries. The 52-year-old lives in the Unaza e Re area and passes through “Milto Sotir Gurra” street every day, a junction inside the buildings with a length of about 1.5 km. This road has been unpaved for a long time. For years, the potholes were impassable not only for pedestrians who got stuck in puddles of water, but also for vehicles. No one listened to the complaints of the residents of this neighborhood and this indifference lasted until the days of the electoral campaign.
Black spots of bitumen are still visible on the new asphalt, indicating that the investment took place recently.
The potholes are gone. Citizens' complaints have been replaced with "jokes" through which they do not stop calling it "electoral asphalt". Indeed, this labeling is often encountered for paving roads at election time.
Agron shakes his head and with a victorious look speaks to ACQJ: " They paved it for the elections. What's going well in this country, come on. It's better than it was... It was a hole, a hole all over." As he speaks loudly, a lady interrupts him, commenting without separating herself from politics.
" They paved it for elections, just look at it, there are no sidewalks, no sewers, nothing." As a suburban neighborhood that starts next to the main artery of the New Ring Road, it is obvious that its road was paved in a hurry. "Look at the mottled colors of the asphalt, they are the best evidence of the settlement, so to speak," comments a passerby.
A little further on, sitting on the side of the road, we meet another resident, who does not share the irony and with it the demand for an account. " It's one of these electoral asphalts that we hear about. But they spent money to pave it with asphalt, why didn't they pave it properly? They should have also built sidewalks, parking spaces for cars, because it doesn't bother us to walk on the road, because now that they've laid this asphalt, they walk quickly and it seems like someone is taking our car with them."
But this readiness of the residents to confess the electoral investment, returns to silence when you ask who laid it.
" We don't know anything, these people in the area say, 'Just go and get this thing done,'" Agron adds reservedly.
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Who paved the way before the elections?
On the side of this road, no further than 3 meters from the laid asphalt, there is also the electoral office of the Socialist Party in unit 6, where the candidate for deputy was the Minister of Infrastructure, Belinda Balluku.
Against Minister Balluku, a criminal complaint has been filed in the Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime. In this report, the Democratic Party claims that the minister and the minister's staff have collected the data of the residents of the area where Balluku was a candidate for deputy, in order to legalize the houses.
" Belinda Balluku's electoral headquarters, headed by the head of the headquarters, Laureta Omeri, collects data on residents of Belinda Balluku's electoral area to carry out legalization before the elections. This is the use of state resources for party and electoral purposes and is punishable by prison. In this conversation there are details of the relevant buildings and addresses for which the electoral headquarters of the Socialist Party order immediate legalization before the elections, in exchange for votes", said Belind Këlliçi in a statement to the media after the report to SPAK.
In the drawers of SPAK, there is not only this accusation about election complaints. Another report that has arrived in the hands of SPAK Prosecutors is the one submitted by Gazment Bardhi against Taulant Balla, the political leader of the Socialist Party in Elbasan district.
"Hello, I am speaking to you from the office of Taulant Balla's Headquarters and I would like to inform you that your economic aid has doubled from February to June. This was made possible by Taulant Balla. We expect your support. Thank you", these sentences, the report states, are part of the phone calls. The Democratic Party claims that the promise reached the phones of those citizens of Elbasan who receive economic aid. To prove this, the Democrats have added to the request for investigation several phone numbers used to transmit these messages to citizens in need, beneficiaries of social assistance.
In this report, the Democratic Party says that the political leader of the Socialist Party in the District of Elbasan, using a Decision of the Council of Ministers (no. 85, dated 10.02.2021), has doubled the economic assistance for the citizens who benefited from it in Elbasan, to use it for political gain. In the same report submitted to the Special Prosecutor's Office, by the General Secretary of the DP, Gazment Bardhi, it is claimed that from the same phone numbers some families who benefit from economic assistance were pressured to receive it only in exchange for a vote for the Socialist Party .
ACQJ tried to get information from some of these families of the Roma community in Elbasan and Cërrik, whether or not they received such a phone call, but did not receive any response, despite the fact that four citizens were contacted.
" I'm interested in bread and not politics. I will vote for anyone who gives me economic assistance, and this party put me on the economic assistance scheme for four years, " says Hasan B., a family man, refusing to say whether or not he was financially lured by politics.
The head of "Community Reporters Albania", Brejdon Xhavara, who carried out a monitoring for the April 25 parliamentary elections in the cities of Tirana, Elbasan, Fier and Durrës, says that in Elbasan, the phenomenon of buying and selling votes is one of the concerns.
"The monitoring focused on Roma and Egyptian voters, based on previous OSCE/ODIHR reports that have always found the same problems such as vote buying and selling, harassment or blackmailing of voters on voting day. From the previous report, the observers found that in the city of Elbasan in neighborhood 14, goods and money were distributed to Roma voters to vote," he says.
In areas where vulnerable communities have the greatest concentration, politicians appeared before April 25, with bags of food in one hand and cash in the other. This phenomenon was especially present in the neighborhoods known as the poorest in the cities. Such as: 4 administrative units in Tirana, neighborhood 14 and Nishtulla in Durrës, neighborhoods "5 Maji" and "Beqir Dardha" in Elbasan as well as in the district of Fier in Levan, Baltës and Mbrostar.
"Voting in groups, assistance during voting by committee members", are just some of the violations mentioned by Brejdon Xhavara for ACQJ, adding that: " one night before the elections, food and cash were distributed in Tirana and Elbasan to vote, observers also noticed that during the voting process, Roma and Egyptian voters were accompanied by different people who dictated the vote", he adds.
Asked about the phenomenon of vote buying and selling, he says: " According to the observers' reports, cases where food and cash were distributed were identified in all four municipalities where observers carried out the election observation mission."
What is the prosecution doing?
All political parties, left and right, and even the president have demanded investigations by SPAK, citing indications, suspicions and attempts to corrupt voters.
The most typical are the offers of favors such as legalizations and grocery bags. A state official is mentioned in the report citing his messages.
" When you finish what you have in hand, please return to CK with this list, as the chief himself promised the residents ."
In a statement for ACQJ, the secretary for legal affairs in the Democratic Party, says that this political force has made dozens of reports about irregularities in the elections.
" There are 180 reports in the district prosecutor's offices and at least 40 in SPAK. Of course, we have reported with specific names," says Ivi Kaso.
And in a report submitted to SPAK by Edi Paloka, for the Durrës District, 44 names of persons are listed, 22 of which, according to the 11-page document submitted to SPAK, with high state functions in the administration of the coastal city, while 22 others, citizens who, according to DP, have participated in electoral crimes.
"The city and the entire Durrës Region are considered the place where vote buying through gangs and state officials became a "system", a system that was perfected and continues to spread throughout the country ," the DP's report states.
Of the 91 reports received by SPAK, less than half of them were kept in the hands of the Special Prosecutors. Asked about these denunciations, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office, Arben Kraja, said that 46 cases have been forwarded to the District Prosecutor's Offices for competence.
" This is because there are many criminal offenses in the field of elections and the Special Prosecution Office is only competent for two of them: "Active corruption in elections and Passive corruption in elections," the head of SPAK told ACQJ.
Among other things, the head of the Special Prosecution Office talks about the files: " The cases we have under investigation are 34. There are 7 under investigation for corruption in elections, of which 5 with "prison arrest" and 2 with "compulsory appearance". I can say this much, assessing that the investigation is secret until completion. For the other cases, there are no suspect names listed in the register yet. The investigations continue".
Shooting votes and punches
Among these allegations awaiting investigation, on April 25, the photographing of the vote was not missing. In the middle of the capital, the citizen with the initials AS would not only photograph his vote, but would also rape a member of the commission at the moment it was discovered by her. The way the incident unfolded is detailed in the report that the citizen with the initials RI made to the State Police. Around 11:00, at the polling station near the Fan Nolin school in Tirana, citizen AS went to vote, where he was found photographing the vote. This citizen punched RI after the latter discovered him photographing the vote. The police have also requested the video footage of the moment from the Central Election Commission, while AS has been declared wanted for the criminal offenses of “Hitting due to duty”, “Violation of the secrecy of voting”, “Threat or rape of election participants”.
On April 25, Albanian citizens freely expressed their will through voting. But the numerous reports even in the district prosecutor's offices about officials who have misused their duties or by promising rewards are yet to be proven with evidence. None of them were caught red-handed, although politics raised its voice a few months before the date of the elections. And in these complaints there are also denunciations related to the way citizens are informed by the Albanian Telegraphic Agency. This report is based on the live broadcasts of ATSH on Facebook, where the live activities of the government and some Socialist Party candidates during the April 25 campaign were reflected, raising doubts that ATSH was clearly biased, despite the fact that it is financed by the State Budget and must be independent.
