Helsinki Committee report, concern over scant investigation of election crimes

2024-03-27 22:02:54, Aktualitet CNA

In Tirana, the Helsinki Committee published a report on election crimes in the general elections, where it appears that they are little investigated, and that the vast majority of denunciations are closed without starting investigations.

The use of public office for electoral activities is the most denounced, but least punished, criminal offense, especially when it comes to high officials, the authors of the report emphasized.

Civil society activists expressed concern about the misuse of public funds for election campaigns and hope that SPAK will put an end to this phenomenon.

In the report on electoral crimes in the general elections, which covers the years 2016-22, it is said that 218 cases have been reported, but only 21 percent of them have been sent to court, while the other 79 percent are stopped with decisions not to start, or with a break of the case and the charge.

The main whistleblowers are political parties, the police and public officials, but the study points out that only 5 percent of electoral cases are investigated by the prosecution's own initiative, while only 2 percent of cases are reported by citizens.

The three most denounced offenses are active corruption in elections, use of public office for political or electoral activities, as well as falsification of election materials and election results.

The authors of the report pointed out that the denunciations against senior officials are not sufficiently investigated. The executive director of the Albanian Committee of Helsinki, Erida Skëndaj, says that investigations against high-level officials are very few.

"There are about 12 high-level public officials denounced, but very few investigated. In most cases, the prosecution has decided not to initiate criminal proceedings for high-level public officials, so these citizens have not been investigated, and none of the high-ranking officials of this period under study have been asked to send the case to court," said Mrs. Skëndaj.

A concern for the authors of the study remains the closure of 1/3 of the denunciations without the initiation of investigations, in some cases even after 5 months, while there are no proper verifications as to whether or not a criminal case should be initiated.

Equally worrying for them is the artificial extension of investigative deadlines, in some cases up to 4 years.

The study center Open Data Albania sees with concern the misuse of public funds in the service of the electoral campaign of the socialist majority, starting from the budget, distribution of funds and individual grants, which are distributed before the elections.

Its leader, Aranita Brahaj, says for the Voice of America that the institutions still have an ambiguity regarding their competences in the investigation of election crimes, which pass each other, while on the other hand it is observed that the opposition is investigated more and the officials less .

"Surprisingly, they have been investigated more carefully, they have been monitored, they have adjusted the files which had as subjects people who are in the opposition, but not people who are in office.

"Elections remain problematic for the country, when equal competition is still very difficult, where the influence of dirty money in electoral processes is visible, when on the other hand public money is misused for electoral purposes," said Mrs. Brahaj.

The prosecution claims for its part that it has expanded its work to investigate criminal offenses that affect free elections and their democratic system.

Prosecutor General Olsian Çela says that in 2022, 26 criminal proceedings were registered, with 60 defendants, of which 3 were sent to court and 14 defendants were convicted, while in 2023, 25 criminal proceedings were registered with 19 defendants. , of which 2 of them with 14 defendants were sent for trial and 2 of them were convicted. Even in the prosecution statistics, the use of public office for political or electoral activity prevails

" According to criminal offenses, it turns out that the largest share of registered proceedings is the criminal offense "Using public office for political or electoral activity", for which 8 criminal proceedings and 6 defendants were registered; for the criminal offense provided by "Voting more than once or without being identified", said Mr. Çela.

Use of public office is ranked among the least punishable criminal offenses in court. Similar phenomena are also seen in the other report of the KSH on the investigation of electoral crime in the local elections of May 14.

The organization Qëndresa Cijetare yesterday asked the Special Structure Against Organized Crime and Corruption to investigate suspected violations by 22 mayors during the local elections of a year ago, which are considered abuse of office and use of public office for political activity or election.

The representative of this organization, Migen Qiraxhi, says for the Voice of America that 20 officials have been fined from their denunciations to the CEC, but these punishments are low from a financial point of view and have not stopped the phenomenon or their careers.

"In many cases we have seen that those convicted by the CEC are repeat offenders two or three times. That's why we turned to SPAK, referring to 22 mayors and former mayors, who have been sanctioned by the CEC, but in our legal analysis, which we made available to SPAK, we considered that they also committed the crime criminal charges of abuse of office as well as the use of public office for political or electoral activity", says Mr. Qiraxhi.

Activists believe SPAK that this new institution will deal with organized crime and corrupt officials, as well as in electoral processes, ensuring elections with integrity, and putting an end to the use in party campaigns of the power of the state, the wealth of joint and public funds./ VOA