Saturday, April 22, 2023

In its last meeting, the Council of Ministers approved the Decision on monitoring the activity and use of the state administration during the May 14 election process. This decision, which comes a week after the start of the election campaign, once again confirms the concern raised by national and international monitors about the level of misuse of state resources in the elections.
We welcome the establishment of the government task force provided as result of this DCM, but we emphasize that the intended results can only be guaranteed through the provision of transparency and the proper involvement of independent institutions and civil society in monitoring the administration's behavior.

The latest decision once again confirms the prohibition of state administration employees to campaign for an electoral subject or candidate during official hours and in the workplace. Unfortunately, DCM has not provided a regulation for the political engagement of state employees on social media and other virtual platforms.

Such a virtual limitation is already foreseen for the public administration members who are part of the civil service. According to the instruction no . 11, dt. 10.02.2023 of the Commissioner for the Oversight of the Civil Service, it is assessed "the civil servant's obligation to refrain from publicly expressing his political beliefs or preferences, in networks, online media or social platforms, pursuant to Article 37 of the law 152/2013, "For the civil servant", amended."

According to the Commissioner's interpretation, the ban also applies after official hours, when it can be argued that likes are shared in the "Aktiv1st" application built by the Socialist Party or other forms of communication on social networks.
As a good sign of the will to respect the commitments undertaken in the decision of the Council of Ministers, it would be necessary for the heads of ministries not to encourage the engagement of state employees in online posts of their political activities during the following three weeks . The first concrete step is the suspension of the "Aktiv1st" application or at least the accounts of civil servants who are part of the portal. According to the list leaked to the media in January of this year, registered users of the application are hundreds of civil servants in public institutions.

We will continue to monitor the activity of the Task Force as well as offer our contribution as part of civil actors engaged in ensuring equal opportunities for subjects and candidates in the electoral processes.

The Academy of Political Studies in cooperation with the Institute for Political Studies are monitoring the election campaign, within the project "Strong partnerships for sustainable reforms - Strengthening the role of civil society in addressing the challenges of free and fair elections", with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania.
 
Academy of Political Studies
Institute for Political Studies