Re: Albanian HC: Unwanted incident during electoral campaign
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Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 10:01:39 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Re: Albanian HC: Unwanted incident during electoral campaign
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Re: Albanian HC: Unwanted incident during electoral campaign
Dear list members,
On 17 October this year, we circulated a statement of the Albanian
Helsinki Committee posted by International Helsinki Federation for
Human Rights, on the incidents which took place during municipal
elections campaign in Himara. After that, we received some critical
responses (particularly from the readers from Greece) who questioned
adequacy of the AHC statement, and criticised it for being biased. Of
course, we are not experts on Albania, and are not going to judge who
is right and who is wrong in these regrettable incidents. Anyway, we
consider it reasonable to circulate relevant statements from sources
whose credibility, in our view, cannot be disputed.
Boris
---------------
Greek Helsinki Monitor also circulated the AHC statement on the
BalkanHR list, however, supplied with the following comments:
---
Greek Helsinki Monitor distributes the statement as all previously
ones issued by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, although it finds it
not correctly reflecting the situation in Himara. More specifically,
it does not also address undisputable facts like the documented
anti-Greek hate speech before the elections and the serious
allegations of elections violations made by the Human Rights Party
candidate in Himara. While its reference to the education issue is
reflecting the state policy more than the universal principles of
equal treatment of minorities within one country, irrespective of
their territorial location.
Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group - Greece will bring
before the OSCE Implementation Meeting starting tomorrow in Warsaw the
issue of the Himara elections, that has indeed created an unfortunate
yet serious rift in Greek-Albanian relations somewhat reminiscent of
the "Omonoia trial" crisis in 1994.
---------------------------------------------------------------
GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM)
MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE (MRG - G)
Address: P.O. Box 60820, 15304 Glyka Nera
Telephone: (+30-1) 347.22.59.
Fax: (+30-1) 601.87.60.
e-mail: [email protected]
website: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
--------------------------
STATEMENT ON ALBANIA AND GREECE AT THE 2000 OSCE IMPLEMENTATION
MEETING
17 October 2000
Free and Fair Elections: the Himara (Albania) Municipal Elections
(October 2000)
Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group - Greece have for
years worked on human rights and in particular on minority rights in
Southeast Europe. Today, they deplore the conditions under which
municipal elections, and in particular their second round, were held
in the Albanian municipality of Himara, on 1 and 15 October 2000.
International observers, including from the OSCE ODIHR, are reported
today to have confirmed many irregularities and to have also
registered a fact well known to experienced minority rights advocates:
the Himara region has a Greek minority that is denied the rights the
Albanian state grants to Greek minority members elsewhere, in the
officially recognized "minority zones."
As a result of the refusal to recognize the presence of ethnic Greeks
in Himara and to consequently operate minority classes in the schools,
despite the existence of sufficient demand, this year's municipal
elections have apparently acquired the character of an implicit
referendum on the issue. Because the issue is perceived as a
"sensitive national issue", if not a taboo, in Albania, all but one of
the country's political parties coalesced in the second round behind
the socialist candidate opposing a candidate of the mainly Greek
minority Human Rights Party.
As the observer noted, it was an "unusual coalition" given that the
country's two major parties were at each other's throats everywhere
else in Albania. In fact the opposition "Democratic Party" even
boycotted the second round to protest against alleged unfairness of
the first round for which they held responsible the socialists. But
they allied with them in Himara. On the other hand this odd
coalition's opponent, the Human Rights Party is a partner in the
socialist-led government.
This did not prevent the socialists from joining the opposition in
unprecedented in recent years "hellenophobic hate speech" through
election day, according to ODIHR observers. Today, even ODIHR has
reportedly become a target of hate speech. Socialist Party leader
Fatos Nano for example branded the Greek minority party "Human Rights
criminals." The result of the formation of what was repeatedly called
"Alliance for the Nation" was - to quote Albanian weekly "Klan"
(14/10/00) - that:
"Instead of a normal election procedure in a town of the Albanian
South, we are now faced with a historic battle - in which, in an
irrational way, the electoral result will be interpreted in terms of
the origins and the ancient tradition of this town: if the socialist
candidate wins it will be an Albanian town, if the Human Rights Party
wins, it will be a Greek town."
In such circumstances almost everywhere election irregularities would
have been unavoidable. There are widespread allegations, some already
documented, of harassment of Greek voters, and of use of unnecessary
police violence: an Associated Press photo showing uniform and plain
clothes policemen with rifles and guns pushing unarmed civilians in
front of an election center is telling. Moreover, Human Rights Party
and Greek Parliament representatives claim there were incidents of
violence against party representatives in polling places as well as
and ballot stuffing. At the same time, allegations, some documented,
were made of inappropriate conduct of some minority members and
members of parliament from Greece, well known hardliners of the
nationalist opposition New Democracy party. We welcome the Greek
government's condemnation of such practices.
The election climate and the irregularities have created a dangerous
spiral, rather reminiscent of the 1994 "Omonoia trial" crisis between
Albania and Greece. Inter alia, in Greece, leading opposition
politicians and many others called yesterday for "reprisal" expulsions
of Albanian immigrants from Greece.
Our NGOs therefore appeal today to the OSCE ODIHR to help publish a
detailed report on this election, confirming or refuting as many
allegations as possible. This is the only way nationalist circles in
both countries will be devoid of arguments. Should such a request be
granted, all those making allegations should document them and submit
them to ODIHR. If such a review finds it necessary, a rerun of the
election need be called for. We hope the Albanian authorities will
cooperate in such an effort.
Most importantly, though, we appeal to the "good offices" of the OSCE
HCNM, a knowledgeable expert on the situation in Albania and Greece.
We request that, in cooperation with the Albanian authorities, he
addresses the issue of the - inadmissible by international and now
also Albanian standards - territorial restrictions on the recognition
of minorities in Albania and advise the Albanian government how to
abolish such practices and apply instead uniformly the standards now
part of Albanian legal order.
The sooner this is done, the better it will be. In 2001, there are
scheduled a national census and a parliamentary election in Albania.
The country's democratic transition cannot afford either one to be
challenged as unfair by any side.
____________________________________________________
GHM Board: Panayote Dimitras, Dionysis Gousetis, Dimitrina Petrova,
Alan Phillips, Gregory Vallianatos.
MRG-G Executive Committee: Mehmet Dukkanci, Nafsika Papanikolatos.
International Advisory Committee: Savvas Agouridis, Teuta Arifi, Ivo
Banac, Vladimir Bilandzic, Marcel Courthiade, Loring Danforth, Fernand
de Varennes, Eran Fraenkel, Victor-Yves Ghebali, Henri Giordan,
Krassimir Kanev, Will Kymlicka, Remzi Lani, Theodore S. Orlin,
Dimitrina Petrova, Alan Phillips, Aaron Rhodes, Patrick Thornberry,
Stefan Troebst, Boris Tsilevich, Tibor Varady.
Affiliation to International Organizations: Consortium of Minority
Resources (COMIR), European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), International
Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), International Helsinki
Federation for Human Rights (IHF), Minority Rights Group International
(MRGI).
----------------------------------
http://www.osce.org/news/generate.php3?news_id=1147
Election process in Albania marked progress despite serious problems
in second round
TIRANA, 16 October 2000 - Despite some serious problems in the second
round of the local government elections in Albania, the overall
election process marked progress, concluded the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) Election
Observation Mission, deployed in close co-operation with the Council
of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe
(CLRAE).
The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission noted in a statement of
preliminary findings and conclusions (attached), that while the first
round of the local government elections held in Albania on 1 October
marked significant progress towards meeting the standards for
democratic elections, the second round on 15 October was less
transparent and inclusive, and showed the need for further improvement
in order to meet certain OSCE commitments.
The two Election Observation Missions in particular noted some
concerns related to the post-election period after the first round.
The Central Election Commission's announcement of the final results
was slow and incomplete. The provisions of the Electoral Code on
election complaints are insufficient and were implemented selectively
by the election commissions and the courts. The appeals process did
not provide effective means of redress, which particularly affected
the Republican Party. A number of valid complaints were dismissed
without explanation.
The campaign environment for the second round was peaceful and calm
overall. Both missions however identified the following problems in
the run-up to the second round:
The CEC did not take action to remedy some of the shortcomings
observed on 1 October, particularly failing to address inaccuracies in
the voter lists, invalid ballots and election complaints and to
provide more training to lower-level commissions.
The CEC did not set a deadline for candidate withdrawal in between the
rounds, which created confusion on the eve of the election, when a
number of DP candidates resigned following a call to boycott from the
national DP leadership. In Himara, where there is a Greek-speaking
minority, the end of the campaign at local and national level was
marred by nationalistic rhetoric, reported at length in the press even
on election day, in an environment of increased tension with a
neighboring country.
On election day, voting and counting procedures were overall carried
out in a calm and orderly manner in most constituencies. Some
irregularities were noted including late opening of polling stations
and poor respect of procedures such as the inking of voters. Family
voting was observed on a large scale, thus denying the secrecy of the
vote to women in particular. Some DP representatives resigned from
their posts on the election commissions, depriving the process of an
essential element of transparency, and as a result election
commissions at times did not reach the legal quorum. In Himara, the
situation was marked by some serious irregularities ranging from
intimidation of commissions members, to one case of violence in which
a ballot box
was destroyed, to verified evidence of fraud in at least three other
voting centres. The authorities should investigate fully the
irregularities in accordance with the rule of law.
For further information, please contact:
Eugenio Polizzi, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission,
in Tirana (Tel: +355-42-230012) or Elsa Fenet, ODIHR Election Adviser,
or Jens-Hagen Eschenbacher, ODIHR Public Affairs Officer, in Warsaw
(Tel: +48-22-520-0600)
Amb. Jorgen Grunnet, Special Representative of the Council of Europe
Secretary General in Tirana (Tel:+355-42-233375)
-------------------------------------------------------------
STATEMENT OF PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission
REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA
Local Government Elections
Second Round - 15 October 2000
http://www.osce.org/news_scripts/index.php3
-------------------------------------------------------------
Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions
Tirana, 16 October 2000 - The Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) Election Observation Mission (EOM) for the
municipal elections in the Republic of Albania issues this statement
of preliminary findings and conclusions before the final certification
of the election results and before a complete analysis of the
observation findings.
This statement should be considered in conjunction with the statement
issued by the EOM on 2 October after the first round of voting. The
OSCE/ODIHR will issue a comprehensive and final report approximately
one month after the completion of the electoral process.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Preliminary Conclusions
----------------------------------------------------------------
While the first round of the local government elections held in
Albania on 1 October marked significant progress towards meeting the
OSCE commitments for democratic elections as formulated in the 1990
OSCE Copenhagen Document, the second round was less transparent and
inclusive. After the first round, indeed, the handling of complaints
by the election commissions and the courts was inadequate and did not
provide an effective means of redress. A number of valid complaints
were dismissed without explanation. The Central Election Commission's
(CEC) announcement of the final results was slow and incomplete, and
the CEC did not take action to remedy some of the shortcomings
observed on 1 October.
The campaign environment for the second round was peaceful and calm
overall. While the Socialist Party (SP) ran a high-level campaign, the
national leadership of the Democratic Party (DP) decided not to
participate in the second round. The failure of the CEC to set a
deadline for candidate withdrawal in between the rounds created
confusion on the eve of the election, when a number of DP candidates
resigned following a call to boycott from the DP national leadership.
In Himara, the end of the campaign at local and national level was
marred by nationalistic rhetoric, reported at length in the press even
on election day, in an environment of increased tension with a
neighboring country.
A broad spectrum of media reported on the elections, although the time
given to candidates and the campaign was limited. The public
television broadcaster, TVSH, gave overwhelming but neutral coverage
to the SP.
On election day, voting and counting procedures were overall carried
out in a calm and orderly manner in most constituencies. Some DP
representatives resigned from their posts on the election commissions,
thus depriving the process of an essential element of transparency. In
Himara, the situation was marked by some serious irregularities.
In conclusion, the OSCE/ODIHR EOM notes that, overall, the electoral
process for the Local Government Elections in Albania mark progress,
but the second round in particular showed the need for further
improvement in order to meet certain OSCE commitments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Preliminary Findings
-------------------------------------------------------------------
First round results
First round results for mayoral contests gave an outright victory to
Socialist Party (SP) candidates in 140 constituencies and to
Democratic Party (DP) candidates in 67 constituencies; the Human
Rights Party candidate won in five communes and the Albanian Legality
Movement in one. Run-offs took place on 15 October in 28
municipalities, 127 communes and 10 administrative units of Tirana,
where no candidate received more than 50% of valid votes on 1 October.
New elections were scheduled in seven communes, where voting did not
take place properly, or at all, on 1 October.
Based on information provided by Local Government Election Commissions
(LGECs), the Central Election Commission announced the final results
of the first round on 7 October. However, this CEC decision number 40
was incomplete as it did not contain the final number of voters
registered, the overall turnout, nor the detailed results from the
proportional ballot for municipal or commune councils. Moreover, in
Tirana, the CEC accepted incomplete protocols from the city LGEC,
which did not bear the required signatures and stamps, and failed to
record the number of invalid ballots.
Election complaints procedure
After the first round of elections, political parties filed a large
number of complaints with the election commissions and the courts.
Unfortunately, the election complaints procedure did not provide them
with effective means of redress.
The provisions of the new Electoral Code on complaints are
insufficient and the CEC and the High Court failed to establish
comprehensive rules of procedure as foreseen in the Code. For instance
the legal criteria for recounts are too stringent and were implemented
selectively.
On 7 October, the CEC decided, without providing a legal rationale, to
reject the vast majority of complaints related to election day.
Moreover, the CEC decision was made available only on 11 October when
the deadline for appealing to the High Court could be considered as
expired. For no clear reason, other complaints were referred by the
CEC to local courts. At local level, LGECs dismissed cases hastily
and, in some cases, gave no official reply to complaints received, or
simply refused to investigate evident discrepancies. District and
appellate courts were also reluctant, with few exceptions, to examine
the substance of the complaints addressed to them.
The inadequate appeals procedure particularly penalized the Republican
Party, which complained above all that some of its duly registered
candidates did not appear on the ballots on election day. Despite
appealing to various instances, the party was unable to obtain redress
with the commissions or the courts.
In Durres, the local DP candidate complained that, in four cases, the
LGEC tabulated results did not match the figures of their official
protocols. The tabulated results were not endorsed by the DP member of
the LGEC and, in two cases, they also appeared out of scale compared
to other voting centres. The discrepancy was large enough to require a
run-off in Durres, but the LGEC and the CEC dismissed the complaint
without adequate rationale. The DP chose, however, not to seek redress
in court.
Legal and administrative framework for the second round
The CEC did not take appropriate steps to remedy some of the
shortcomings observed on 1 October. It did not provide lower-level
election commissions with additional training and information on how
to deal with inaccuracies in the voter lists, invalid ballot papers
and election complaints. The CEC also failed to set a deadline for
candidate withdrawal prior to the second round which created confusion
on the eve of the election, when a number of DP candidates resigned.
The CEC decided to ignore these withdrawals and to proceed with the
elections as planned.
Election Environment and Second Round Campaign
The election campaign between the two rounds of voting was generally
low key, and for the most part, campaign activities took place in a
calm and peaceful atmosphere.
After the announcement of results, the SP launched a high-level
campaign. While the majority of second rounds still included contests
between SP and DP candidates, the focus shifted in certain
constituencies to local competitions between the SP and its national
junior coalition parties.
In the run up to the second round, the prospect of a DP boycott loomed
over the campaign. As a protest against the alleged manipulations of
the election process, the national leadership of the DP indeed
threatened not to participate in the second round unless the CEC was
changed, the voter lists updated and the election postponed. Both the
CEC and the Government rejected these conditions. As a result the DP
did not engage itself in the contest and the campaign was one-sided.
In Himara, the end of the campaign at local and national level was
marred by nationalistic rhetoric, pitting the Albanian against the
Greek community, and reported at length in the press even on election
day, in an environment of increased tension with a neighboring
country.
Media Coverage
As during the first round, a broad spectrum of media reported on the
elections. Overall, the time given to candidates and the campaign was
limited, as the media preferred to concentrate on broader political
issues such as the threat of a DP boycott and the situation in Himara.
For its part, the public television broadcaster, TVSH, gave
overwhelming coverage to the SP, reflecting the unilateral character
of the campaign; the tone of this information however, was overall
balanced.
On 9 October, the National Council for Radio and Television issued a
statement calling for professional media coverage of the second round.
Moreover, the NCRT asked the CEC to fine a private television station,
ATN1, for breaking the campaign silence on 30 September.
Election Day
On election day, voting and counting procedures were overall carried
out in a calm and orderly manner in most constituencies. Some
irregularities were noted including late opening of polling stations
and poor respect of procedures such as the inking of voters. Family
voting was observed on a large scale, thus denying the secrecy of the
vote to women in particular. The resignation of DP commissions members
deprived the election of an essential safeguard and element of
transparency, and, as a result, election commissions at times did not
reach the legal quorum. In Himara, the situation was marked by some
serious irregularities ranging from intimidation of commissions
members, to one case of violence in which a ballot box was destroyed,
to verified evidence of fraud in at least three voting centres.
The Albanian authorities should ensure that all irregularities are
fully investigated in accordance with the rule of law.
The ODIHR will monitor the follow-up to the election and stands ready
to assist the Government in addressing the concerns highlighted in
this and the previous preliminary statement.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mission Information
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The EOM, with Eugenio Polizzi (Italy) as Head of Mission, was
established in Tirana on 25 August 2000 and shortly thereafter started
monitoring the electoral process with 18 experts and long-term
observers deployed in the capital and five regional centers. For 1
October election day, and in close co-operation with the Council of
Europe, the EOM deployed 251 short-term from 26 OSCE participating
States monitoring the polling and vote count process in over 900
voting centers out of 4,578. For the 15 October second round, the EOM
deployed 80 observers from 18 OSCE participating States monitoring the
polling and counting in over 300 voting centres throughout the
country.
The EOM wishes to thank the OSCE Presence in Albania for its support
throughout the duration of the mission, as well as international
organizations such as the European Community Monitoring Mission (ECMM)
and diplomatic representations in Albania for their support on
election day. Moreover, the Governments of Denmark, Germany, Italy,
the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland provided substantial voluntary
contributions which enabled the EOM to extend its presence in country
and monitor effectively the second round.
The EOM wishes to express appreciation to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Central Election Commission and other national and local
authorities for their assistance and cooperation during the course of
the observation.
For further information, please contact Eugenio Polizzi, Head of the
OSCE/ODIHR EOM, in Tirana
(Tel: + 355-42-230012; Fax: +355-42-32522)
or Elsa Fenet, OSCE/ODIHR Election Advisor, in Warsaw
(Tel: +48-22-520-0600;
Fax: +48-22-628-6967).
--
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