Monday, March 13, 2017

The first national course of the Albanian School of Political Studies named "Political organization and electoral systems", took place in Pogradec from 19-21 February 2016. The invited experts shared the best of local and international electoral practices.
The first expert to present was Mr. Jim Arkedis, who has over 15 years of experience in American political campaigns. In his presentation, Mr Arkedis addressed the topics of political communication and campaigning. A significant part of this presentation was devoted to discussing the 2016 presidential election and how president Donald Trump managed to win the election.   Following this discussion, the techniques used by both the Democratic and Republican parties were analyzed, along with the use of social media for political communication among the presidential candidates. The participants also had a short exercise on public speaking, providing them the opportunity to further develop this very important skill for their professional careers.   Later on, the Albanian electoral system was presented in the second module of the course by the co-chairman of the parliamentary committee on electoral code reform, Mr. Oerd Bylykbashi. During this odule, participants had the chance to discuss with Mr. Bylykbashi and share their thoughts on important issue currently facing Albania as whole.    The last module was dedicated to the reform of the judicial system, with the participation of Mr. Fatmir Xhafaj, chairman of the parliamentary commission of the legal affairs and the national coordinator for this important reform. Mr. Xhafaj shared with the participants an analysis of current developments regarding the reform and the various challenges facing its implementation.