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STUDY/ VOA: Rama uses the state budget for electoral influence!

2024-12-13 22:45:28Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
STUDY/ VOA: Rama uses the state budget for electoral influence!
Edi Rama

In Tirana, the Albanian Institute of Science published today the findings of a comparative study on the state budget and public finances in election years, which highlights an increase in funds, employment, and bonuses a few months before the elections.

Experts called for increased restrictive measures on the use of the budget for electoral influence to the benefit of the majority, through means such as normative acts, annual bonuses, and reconstruction funds.

The comparative study between election and non-election years by the Open Data Albania research center notes that the state budget appears to have aimed to influence voters and extract electoral benefits for the ruling majority.

The head of the Albanian Institute of Science, Aranita Brahaj, says that this becomes clear when comparing electoral and non-electoral periods with regard to the multi-year reconstruction program after the 2019 earthquake, individual payments for reconstruction grants, increased employment in the administration, as well as rewards and bonuses for pensioners.

"We are talking about 3.7 billion lek, which will be given for the first time in the spring. There have been bonuses for pensioners at different times, and they are usually distributed at the end of the year. This year we have two bonuses: one at the end of this year and another bonus in the spring of 2025, which is also the electoral spring," said Ms. Brahaj.

In addition to several changes to the Electoral Code, researchers called for legal prohibitions on the adoption of acts that go hand in hand with public procurement.

Legal expert at the Institute of Science and author of the study, Viktor Gumi, says that the normative act on reconstruction remains in force and has been implemented for many years.

"Despite the fact that over 5 years have passed since the natural disaster of the earthquake, this act remains in force and is a mechanism that is supplied, I assess from the perspective of a political strategy, for political effect, for electoral effect. The most logical question that stands at this point is: Why do we need to have special ad hoc rules in such a long period of time when the law on public procurement has very well-defined procedures for this direction and which has also been evaluated by international institutions as a very good law in accordance with the European Union directives", said Mr. Gumi at the rally.

The researchers emphasized that the Assembly needs to abandon amending the state budget with Normative Acts, which are also applied during the election year or period, while the law on the budget system should include mechanisms to prevent possible abuse in the case of election years or shortly before the date of general and local elections.

Economics and public audit expert Lindita Lati emphasized the consequences that high non-profit spending, budget politicization, tax evasion and reduced revenues, low transparency and accountability, and the increase in the budget deficit have on the economy during election years.

"The game being played with the budget deficit is not a pleasant game from our point of view as auditors. The year 2017 showed us that precisely in order for the government to declare that it had a budget deficit below 2 percent of GDP, which is a legal obligation, we saw that manipulations had been carried out of the budget deficit assessment methodology. Not to mention the hidden budget deficit, which comes from arrears," said Ms. Lati.

The Electoral Code states that four months before the election date until the formation of the new government after the elections, it is prohibited to propose, approve or issue legal or sub-legal acts to provide benefits to certain categories of the population such as salary increases, pensions, economic and social support, tax reductions or exemptions, fiscal amnesty, privatizations or the granting of assets or rewards, except in a state of natural disaster.

Experts stated that this article needs to be detailed to add restrictions, while the State Election Commissioner, Ilirjan Celibashi, said that improving this article and many others requires the political will of the parties in the Assembly.

"For all the provisions of the Electoral Code and for all the problems under discussion, I think that we will have to modernize and make more realistic the entire regulatory framework for the conduct of elections in Albania. We have a 2008 code in force, which has been constantly amended. We need a new electoral code, and this work should start immediately after the next elections with the will of the political parties," said Mr. Celibashi.

The study notes that the Constitution does not set rules on the state budget in election years, while the relevant law specifies that the budget deficit be executed almost evenly in the four quarters of the year with general elections, while the researchers assessed that existing legal measures are insufficient to avoid the electoral use of the state budget.


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