ACEEEO BOOK

The first 15 years

Introduction

This chapter was prepared for the purpose of introducing the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO). Summarizing the last 15 years it also intends to show the professional and organizational events of the Association from the early beginning - 1991 - till the present days of 2006.

The first five years - establishment
1991-1995

With the collapse of communism and socialism, the nations of Central and Eastern Europe suffered from a lack of knowledge of administration. One of the greatest threats to the newly established democracies of the region was the lack of permanent election structures. The Association was created to combat the above mentioned threats by strengthening the democratic election institutions. The purpose of ACEEEO was to raise the consciousness of decision makers in all of the countries of the region with regard to the critical need to institutionalize the election process.

In the years 1989 to 1990 the multi-party elections became institutionalized in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of the democratization process. In the countries within this region the one-party elections ceased to exist at different rates and the elections themselves have gained real content. The administrators concerned with the preparatory activities and the performance of the elections, as their mission in life, were all witnesses of this historical process. As a consequence of the above mentioned facts, elections administrators gathered in Budapest, Hungary in a Symposium of the Central European Electoral Systems, organized by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the Hungarian National Election Office at the end of July of 1991. The participants discussed their experiences gathered in connection with the political and legal issues of the first democratic elections, as well as the necessity of those technical and technological conditions, which are essential for the holding of free elections. This historical meeting led to the establishment of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO) in 1991.

Participants of the conference - directed by their resolve for the future institutionalisation of the co-operation of countries within the region in the interest of free, fair and democratic elections - founded ACEEEO as a non-governmental and non-profit organisation that is independent of political parties and governments. The founding protocol was signed by election officials from Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia, and in the next 5 years, elections experts from Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine joined their circle. The protocol declaring the foundation of ACEEEO was assured of the support of the "Free Elections" Bureau in Warsaw of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), as well as IFES.
The Founding Fathers of the ACEEEO determined the Association's mission as follows: providing a non-partisan forum, independent of national governments, for the exchange of information among election officials and experts throughout the region covered by the Association to discuss and act upon ways to promote open and transparent elections with the objective of supporting good governance and democracy. One of the main agreements was to hold a yearly conference about theoretical and practical issues relating to elections, providing opportunity to discuss and exchange experiences and methods.
According to the constitution of the Association, members of the Association gathered in Hungary two years later, in 1992 and in 1993. The main topic of the 1992 meeting was to discuss election laws of different countries and to collect these laws in English and in Russian. In the same year the ACEEEO Documentation Centre was established and furnished in Budapest, Hungary. At the conference of 1993, members agreed to lay down conditions regarding the fair organisation of elections and proposed to the member countries to create non-governmental organizations, foundations and civic associations beside the official election bodies in their countries, for the support of elections and also to monitor the fairness of them. This year the Secretariat enlarged the collection of the Documentation Centre. At the same time the ACEEEO started negotiations with the Association for Electoral Administrators (AEA) of the United Kingdom and built up a fruitful cooperation with the Association. As a consequence, in 1994, the Association observed the European Parliamentary elections in Great Britain.
Three years after the first Symposium, the Association held its first Annual Conference in Ukraine, in 1994. Apart from discussing their own election processes the election officials touched on the issues and problems that surfaced at the meeting. The Kiev meeting underscored that a major threat to democracy is the ad-hoc nature of election administration in many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. To promote stability in the electoral process, the Association set itself a new aim that is to encourage the creation of permanent election bodies throughout the region and ensure that governmental institutions are aware of the advantages of the supportive roles these bodies can play in the overall development of the region 's electoral systems.
The first electronic newsletter entitled "Free Elections" was issued this year. 1995 was important in the life of the Association, because one of the main projects, the participation in election observation mission, got started. The annual conference in Hungary, was opened by the President of Hungary where the first exhibition was held with the title "Using technical devices and computers at elections". This conference focused on election technology. Since then, every year the ACEEEO organizes the Exhibition of the Suppliers of Election Equipment and Services.
To sum it up, the first five years was about establishing the ACEEEO and proving the necessity of such an organization. During these years the ACEEEO established its Documentation Centre, gathered election officials from the region and consolidated its existence. All this was supported by the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES).

The second five years - building relations
and recruiting new members from the region
1996-2000

After consolidating its place, the Association started to strengthen its relations, seeking for international partners, co-operations and commenced to embody theory in practice. By 1997 the ACEEEO 's traditional working method was to hold yearly conferences in the capitals of its member countries. In September 1997 representatives from 21 Central and Eastern European countries gathered in the Russian Federation, to participate in a training conference promoting "Transparency in Elections". The conference was focused on election administration, civic involvement and international election support. The international conference also examined issues such as, role of transparency, the inclusion of voters in the election process and the experiences of international election observation. The significance of the topic was amply illustrated by the fact that experts from ACEEEO-member countries were present for supervising at the local government elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of 1997. From the point of view of the current activities and future developments of the ACEEEO, the Moscow conference was an exceptional event, where decisions were made with regard to organizational issues and concerning modification of the Charter of the Association.

This year a new perspective was opened in the inter-regional co-operation of electoral experts by the participation of the ACEEEO at the founding conference of the Association of Election Experts of Asian Countries.
The next annual conference was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, in November 1998. Three main achievements were realized within the frame of this conference. The first was the adoption of the new Charter by the General Assembly. The main reason was to institute a graduated membership structure, specify membership fees, and establish clear rules for participation. Secondly, Belarus indicated the intention to join the Association. The General Assembly accepted the application, and from 1998 the ACEEEO had 15 member states. At the same time a new tradition was introduced; the General Assembly established an honorary membership. Besides the above mentioned achievements, significant issues of international election law were scheduled on the agenda, such as promoting access for voters with special needs, secure production and transportation of ballot papers and legal guarantees against election frauds.

Next year the Association organized its annual meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia (1999), where the General Assembly defined four strategic trends determining the activities of the next 5 years. These trends were as follows: to increase citizen engagement in the electoral process; to encourage the sharing of electoral experience in the region; to promote uniform democratic development across Europe and finally to enhance the institutional capacity of the ACEEEO.
One of our outstanding goals of this year was to contribute to the democratisation process of the Balkan region. For the sake of this goal experts of the Association took part in the foundation of the Association of Election Officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina (AEOBiH) in 1999 and supported the initial activities of the Association as advisors. It was a great pleasure to see that the new Association became an institutional member of the ACEEEO in the same year. Besides AEOBiH, Georgia and Armenia applied for ACEEEO membership, which was granted by the General Assembly during the Bratislava conference. The other great project of the Association was the creation of a multilingual election dictionary, first in 5 languages and since then it has been a collection of election related words and expressions in 11 languages.
At the turn of the 21st century, the four strategic aims, defined at the 1999 conference, determined the work and activity of the Association in 2000 as well. In 2000 we recruited polling supervisors for three elections, had been organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and United Nations (UN) - twice in Bosnia and Herzegovina and once in Kosovo.

Among the three missions - considering their importance, complexity, and political influence - the Kosovo Elections proved to be the far most outstanding one, since it was organized for the first time, the most prepared supervisor team of ACEEEO was delegated to Kosovo. Besides mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, the ACEEEO sent observers to Croatia, the Russian Federation, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. The ACEEEO, as the only NGO, could play a role in a consortium that was organized by the Council of Europe, and was set up for the Kosovo Elections observation. The ACEEEO could send representatives overseas as well, because two of our representatives were invited by the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) as observers for the Presidential Elections of the United States.

This year we went further on deepening our relations with the OSCE department responsible for elections. The aim of these steps was to promote the relations and to discuss the possibility of our participation in the international observer missions in Kosovo.
In order to gain acknowledgement of our Association in Western Europe and to build up co-operation with international organizations, the ACEEEO started negotiations with the Council of Europe. The Political Chief Director of the Council of Europe initiated that the Association should tender for consultative NGO status.
Hungarian election experts, representing the ACEEEO, participated in an election-technique experience exchange both at IFES (based in Washington) and the Election Committee of New York, in 2000. At the same time the representatives of ACEEEO continued conversations with the Election Department of the UN in order to obtain information concerning UN experiences in elections, and on how the Association could take part in the activities of the world organization.
In the year 2000 the Association held its annual conference in Warsaw, in the presence of 26 country representatives, with 180 participants, and 15 exhibitors. During the conference an election history exhibition was displayed, which met with a great success. The main topic of the conference was the interconnection of information technology and elections. Main events of the conference were: Macedonia and Turkey were admitted as institutional members, modification of the charter was accepted, and the idea of establishing a South-European subgroup within the framework of ACEEEO came to life. On the basis of an agreement with the Central Registration, Data Processing and Election Office of the Ministry of Interior, Hungary the ACEEEO prepared a program with the intention of collecting international experience relating to campaign financing. Experts analyzed codification and legal practice of several countries in detail. Its importance had lain in that it functioned as a base for submitting a proposal for modernization of the present Hungarian regulation.
In 2000 we renewed the website of the Association and participated in the so-called Essex project. It was about to construct an election database of the Central and Eastern European region. Due to the vivid and rapidly altering practice of the elections in the region, the creation of an election database became essential, including election laws and results of elections.
From the activities of 2000, we can come to the conclusion that after almost 10 years of its establishment, the ACEEEO started to flourish and act as a regional, professional association, in co-operation with international organizations. During these years it could successfully build up close relations with its member states and world-wide organizations devoted to elections.

The third five years - stabilization
2001-2006

The last chapter in the history of the ACEEEO is about the last five years, when the Association continued its projects and missions, and expanded its activities and relations. 2001 was a very important year in the history of the Association, because it was the year of the 10th anniversary of the ACEEEO.

During this year representatives of the ACEEEO kept on participating in observation missions, such as in Montenegro and Belarus. The Belarus mission was the first mission organized and implemented by the Association. In virtue of the invitation of the Belarus Central Election Commission, the ACEEEO - as the only international organisation - started the first phase of the long-term observational mission. During the long-term observation, this mission followed with attention the whole election procedure. In the last phase of the observational mission - in parallel with other international organisations - 61 short-term observers, from 11 countries, represented the Association. On the election day, teams of two visited 240 polling stations on the whole area of the Republic of Belarus. The professional content of the ACEEEO summary report harmonised with the report of the observers of the OSCE-ODIHR, the European Council and the European Union. The European organisations appraised positively the first independent observation mission of the ACEEEO.
Owing to the professional acknowledgement, the Council of Europe, granted consultative status to the ACEEEO. It was considered a great achievement and with this status, the ACEEEO gained international acknowledgement. At the same time, the Association received the UN/NGO regional network membership in November 2001 as well.
The jubilee annual conference of the ACEEEO was held in Brijuni, Croatia in 2001. During this conference, members celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Association. President of the Republic of Croatia opened the Conference. The main topic was the financing of the election campaigns. The conference gave recommendations concerning the regulation of campaign financing for the members. For the ten-year-anniversary, a CD was prepared, in order to present the activity and the history of the Association.
In 2001, after the jubilee year of the ACEEEO, participation in election observation missions, as one of the main projects of the Association, was increased, because the ACEEEO sent representatives to the following countries: Ukraine, Hungary, Latvia, and Yugoslavia. As the title of this part indicates, the ACEEEO was open to establish relations with international organizations. Besides strengthening the relationship and co-operation with the Council of Europe, especially with the Venice Commission, the Secretariat participated in meetings with the representatives of the European Parliament, European Commission, and European Policy Centre in order to discuss the possible collaboration. As a result of continuous co-operation and the expertise, the Council for Democratic Elections of the Venice Commission decided, to grant the ACEEEO observer status. With this decision we were authorized to attend the meetings of the Venice Commission and work with them cooperatively. Moreover a co-operation agreement was signed between the OSCE-ODIHR and the ACEEEO strengthening our co-operative relationship in 2002.
One of the most important projects of this year was introduced at the Moscow conference, where the Convention on Election Standards, Electoral Rights and Freedoms was presented. The topic of remodelling of the existing European electoral standards in a format unified international document seemed to be in full correspondence to the political spirit. The fact that Mr Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, opened the conference shows the importance of this event. In the Moscow conference the Association admitted the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Azerbaijan as new members of the ACEEEO.
Regarding the main projects of the ACEEEO, 2002 was a very successful year from a professional point of view. The Convention was prepared and adopted; the multilingual election dictionary was enlarged, the ACEEEO developed the Firstvoter.eu project. The project 's aim was to create a web-based informative forum for the widening of knowledge among the youths of Europe about the importance of electoral participation in the form of voting. The project is scheduled in three steps. As the first step toward the realization of the project the Secretariat of the Association organized a preparatory meeting in Budapest for the team leaders appointed by the ACEEEO. At the preparatory meeting Albania, Hungary, Lithuania, and Sweden were represented. During the preparatory meeting the participating team leaders agreed on the continuation of the project through an international youth exchange program (step 2), which took place in 2003.
Moreover, the Association contributed in two important international projects. One of them was the Money and Politics project, in co-operation with the IFES, which was developed to test the Political Finance Disclosure Database in Hungary and in Lithuania. The goal of the project was to develop the transparency of political process by giving free access to the campaign and financing information. The second project was the Electoral Process Information Collection (EPIC) project developed by the International IDEA and designed to introduce electoral systems all over the world and make them available easily through the internet. By presenting information about electoral systems, electoral management, legislative framework, voter registration, voter education and other related topics in a wide range of countries, users are able to compare, and identify common practice within electoral administration. According to the signed cooperation agreement on the EPIC (Elections Process Information Collection) Project between the International IDEA and the ACEEEO, the ACEEEO Secretariat collected all the information needed for the project from its member states and completed the EPIC project.
2003 was the year of missions, because the ACEEEO observed the elections in the following countries: Estonia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia and Montenegro (three times), the Russian Federation. This year was significant in the respect of co-operation with the Council of Europe. The ACEEEO sent representatives to the Multidisciplinary Ad Hoc Group of Specialists on legal, operational and technical standards for e-enabled voting, to the Council for Democratic Elections of the Council of Europe (Venice Commission) and to the Group of Specialists on core technical standards for e-enabled voting. This year the Committee of Ministers (Council of Europe) proclaimed that the consultative status granted in 2001, changed to participatory status with the Council of Europe from 2003.

The ACEEEO devoted its working program in 2003 to the theme "Media and Elections". The reasons were twofold. First, the utmost importance of the role of media in a better functioning democratic processes compels us to reconsider the link between media and elections on the global level in the course of events that shaped so dramatically the history of the 20th century. Second, and, with regard to the scope of activities of ACEEEO, most importantly, the democratization process of societies in Central-eastern Europe makes this ever-green-topic one of the most actual and most relevant ones of contemporary public discourse on the regional level. Therefore, the idea to organize a theme on "Media and Elections" emerged as a result of a bottom-up process. To understand the correspondence between Media and Elections in Central-Eastern Europe, the ACEEEO Secretariat prepared a study and questionnaire concerning this topic, which was the main theme of the annual conference held in 2003, London. The fact that the annual conference was held in the United Kingdom proved our willingness to open to Western Europe and to establish closer relationship with experts and organization outside Eastern and Central Europe. The conference was organized by the ACEEEO in co-operation with The Electoral Commission of UK, the Association of Electoral Administrators of UK, and the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES). This year the Association accepted Kazakhstan as a new institutional member.

As one year passed on, the Association still continued its main activity: election observation mission. In 2004 the ACEEEO sent representatives to the countries such as: Georgia, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus and Ukraine (three rounds). The Association went on strengthening its relations with international organizations, namely OSCE-ODIHR, Council of Europe, International IDEA and IFES. Besides co-operation with international and Western-European organizations, the Association committed itself to a different path. In view of the election situation in the Middle East, the ACEEEO considered it important to hand over its expertise and knowledge to the countries in that region and offered its professional background. Firstly representatives participated in the statutory meeting of the International Mission for Iraqi Elections organized by the Elections Canada and supported by the United Nations and the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq with the involvement of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES). Comprised mainly of independent electoral management bodies, the IMIE was focusing on the election process in Iraq, as well as the registration and voting process outside Iraq. The second step was the visit to Palestine, upon the invitation of the Palestinian Election Commission. During the stay in Palestine, there were meetings with several election officials and representatives of organizations interested in elections and made discussions about the further cooperation. This meeting was the first station in a project of greater importance.

The Association continued its Firstvoter.eu project, which entered the second phase. It was an exchange program among our member states and countries from the European Union. Participants were from Russia, Hungary, Spain, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lithuania.
At the beginning of 2004, the Association took on a long-term project, the ACEEEO publication. The first edition of the ACEEEO newsletter - Elections in Europe - was issued in English and Russian. The newsletter was distributed in our annual conference in Tirana, Albania, where the main topic was "Voter Turnout with special regard to the first time voters". The Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Association during the Tirana conference.
Besides the participation in the continuation of the EPIC project, which was started in the summer of 2004, the ACEEEO contributed to an other International IDEA project, which was International IDEA and regional partners on the political parties program. The aim of this project was to provide legislators, policymakers, political parties and other reformers with a good basis to assess the advantages and disadvantages of their own systems in order to identify opportunities for reform. ACEEEO experts collected the information on country context and the external regulation of political parties in the ACEEEO countries concerned.
The conclusion that can be drawn is that the year of 2004 was a very successful year in the life of the Association, both in regional and in international point of view.
According to the agreements, the ACEEEO continued its participation in the International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE) in 2005 as well. Moreover the Association took another role in the Middle East. Representing the Foundation of Afghanistan and the ACEEEO Secretariat, a Middle East election expert travelled to Afghanistan to observe the election preparations and the elections. After the elections, the Acting Chairman of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan visited Hungary and discussed the possible ways of collaboration. In order to continue the co-operation with the Election Commission of Palestine, the Association, cooperating with Panorama Center (Palestinian NGO), organized a workshop for ACEEEO and Palestinian election experts in order to exchange views and experiences on the development of the election systems and to discuss current topics of elections. As a follow-up, the presentations and the summary of the discussions were published by the ACEEEO. This project was initiated and financed by the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior of Hungary.
Having observer status at the Venice Commission, representatives attended its meeting and discussed the feasibilities of a jointly-organized conference in 2007. After the meeting, an agreement was concluded, to organize a European Conference of Electoral Management Bodies jointly with the Venice Commission in 2007. This would be an important step in the strengthening of the pan-European dimension of the ongoing activities in the electoral field as well as in the co-operation between our organizations.
The newest initiative of the Association was introduced at the third Conference of Global Election Organizations and ACEEEO General Assembly Meeting, held in Si ófok, Hungary. The 3rd International Meeting of the Global Election Organizations (GEO) - previously held in Canada and Mexico - was now hosted by Hungary. One of the main topics of this very significant Conference was "The role of courts in the judging of electoral disputes". Participants of the Global Election Officials Conference launched an initiative to hold an annual Global Elections Day on the first Thursday of February every year. The main goals of this day are: confirming our belief in the irreversibility of democratic processes; informing the public of new achievements and challenges related to various types of voting systems; calling the attention of parliaments, governments, politicians and world leaders about the important leadership role they play in promoting a culture of democracy and high levels of voter participation; influencing first-time voters and young voters to commit themselves to democratic values.
Finally the ACEEEO contributed to the Handbook of Electoral Management Bodies, composed by the International IDEA.
The last year to report on, is 2006, the jubilee year in the existence of the Association. The following projects and initiatives were continued: Global Elections Day, election observation missions, ACEEEO newsletter.
A new project was launched in 2006: "Non armis, sed vi suffragiorum" (By the authority of the ballot, not the force of the bullet). The goal is to make youth understand the importance of participating in the political processes of the democratic life of the European Union, particularly the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at elections. This project supported by the European Commission contains different activity plans e.g. discussions, exchange of best practices, publication of writings, creating a website, that complement each other and will be undertaken by a coalition of NGOs from member states of the EU. In the frame of this project a conference took place in 2006, in Budapest. The conference provided good opportunity to get acquainted with methods and practices of how to educate youngsters and raise their interest in election processes. Participants of the conference were representatives of non-governmental organisations and election management bodies from Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Spain. As a result of the conference, the special edition of the ACEEEO newsletter was issued and by the end of 2006 there is an intention to prepare a handbook aiming at widening the youths ' knowledge about the electoral processes and improving their "citizenship skills" (critical way of thinking, knowledge of political preferences, analysis of political alternatives). The handbook will serve as an important tool in providing electoral knowledge in secondary schools during history or citizenship lessons as well as in the course of non-formal education activities, trainings.
Our jubilee year will be closed and celebrated with a festive Annual Conference and general Assembly meeting in Jurmala, Latvia. This event will give the possibility to celebrate the ACEEEO anniversary worthily.
Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO) was founded in 1991 by 6 countries. Currently the Association has 22 institutional members and 1 member supporter. During the past 15 years it held 14 annual conferences where election experts from almost the whole world were represented. Since 1991 it has built out fruitful and continuous co-operation with election commission in Europe, America, Africa and Australia, with the IFES, International IDEA, OSCE-ODIHR, and Council of Europe.
The professional and organizational improvements of the Association were due to the continuous support provided by the members of the ACEEEO, the Mott Foundation, IFES, International IDEA, the European Commission, Council of Europe and the Hungarian National Assembly.
As for future plans, 2006 is a significant year in the life of the Association. On the basis of the last 15 years ' experiences, it is time to become an Association of Election Officials without any regional limitation and to open new perspectives in the inter-regional co-operation of electoral experts.

Albania

Elections held since the political transformation
In 1991, Albania emerged from a time of communist rule, which lasted nearly 50 years. On 31 March 1991, the last parliamentary elections of the post-communist regime were held, electing the first pluralist parliament.
After the political changes that took place during the 1990-1991 period, the following elections were held in Albania:
- Parliamentary elections (6)
- Constitutional referenda (2)
- Local Government elections (5)

Parliamentary elections:
31 March 1991:

The first elections for the first pluralist, post-war Assembly were held, which was composed of 250 deputies from the Labor Party (the majority) and Democratic Party (opposition).
22 March 1992:

Parliamentary elections were re-held after a year. For the first time, the Democratic Party wins the elections. The first session of the 13th National Assembly (with 140 deputies) was held on 5 April 1992.
26 May 1996:

The elections were held after four years and the Democratic Party won them. The first session of the 14th Parliament was held on 2 July 1996.
29 June 1997:

Advanced parliamentary elections were held in this year and the Socialist Party won them. The newly elected Parliament had 155 deputies. The first session of the 15th Parliament was held on 23 July 1997.
24 June 2001:

Regular parliamentary elections were held, which were won for the second time by the Socialist Party. The new Assembly was composed of 140 deputies. The first session of the 16th Parliament was held on 3 September 2001.
3 July 2005:

Regular parliamentary elections were held won by the Democratic Party. The first session of the 17th legislation was held on 2 September 2005.

Types of parliamentary elections
The parliamentary elections in Albania have always been held under a mixed system. Since its first legislature in 1946, the Assembly of Albania has had a single chamber, while the number of deputies has changed as a result of the amendments made to the Constitution.
The electoral system in Albania is a mixture of majority and proportional systems. The Albanian Parliament consists of 140 members. One hundred of them are elected directly in 100 individual constituencies in a single round, and the remaining 40 MPs are elected in one multi-member constituency (the whole country), based on the lists of parties or coalitions. The Albanian parliament establishes by law the boundaries of the 100 constituencies.
The candidate who wins the largest number of valid votes of the voters who have voted in an individual constituency is considered elected as deputy of that constituency to the Assembly.
When two or more candidates win an equal number of votes, a drawing of lots is organized to decide the winning candidate. The drawing is organized by the Central Election Commission (CEC) in a public session with the participation of candidates. The rules of the drawing are determined by the CEC.
Forty supplemental mandates are calculated by the CEC and divided among the parties and coalitions of political parties, according to the result of proportional voting held on Election Day, pursuant to the rules established in the Election Code (article 67 of the Election Code).
The eligible candidate shall meet the following criteria:
- he should have reached the age of 18 on election day or before it;
- he should not have been declared by a final court ruling as incapable to act, due to mental incapacity;
- he should have never been sentenced.

The following people cannot run in elections without resigning first:
a) judges, prosecutors;
b) active military officers
c) members of police force and national security
d) representatives of diplomatic corps;
e) Mayors of municipalities and chairs of communes and prefects in the zone where they have held their office;
f) chairpersons and members of elections commissions;
g) President of the Republic and high state officials, according to law.

Role of political parties
The Central Election Commission has always highly appreciated the contribution of political parties to the conduct of a fair election process. The fact that amendments proposed are an outcome of the dialogue among political parties shows it. The continuation of the dialogue even during the implementation of law would be to the benefit of holding fair elections. In its work, the CEC has appreciated the importance of active participation of the representatives of political parties in the preparation of elections.

In order to have the involvement and contribution of the political factor in the preparation and conduct of elections, the Central Election Commission sends to political parties all the materials to be examined in the scheduled meetings, as well as the adopted decisions and instructions at the end of the meetings (which are immediately published in the CEC website).

Political parties and electoral coalitions
1. Each Political Party that nominates candidates for deputy to the parliament, candidates for mayors of a municipalities or commune or for council members of a municipality or commune, in compliance with the procedures contemplated in this code, is to be registered by the CEC as an electoral subject not later than 40 days prior to the election day (article 15, of the Electoral Code).
2. Two or more political parties registered by the CEC, according to article 15 of this Code, may be registered by the CEC as an electoral coalition by submitting the respective coalition agreement 35 days prior to the Election Day. The agreement must define whether the parties constituting the coalition will appear separately in the ballot paper in proportional voting or the coalition will appear as a single subject (article 16 of the Electoral Code).

Candidates
1. A candidate for deputy is an Albanian citizen registered by an election commission as a candidate for deputy, pursuant to the Electoral Code, who is to be voted on in the elections (article 2, point 3 of the Electoral Code).
2. An independent candidate is an Albanian citizen registered by an election commission as a candidate for deputy, who is not supported by any political party, pursuant to the Electoral Code, who is to be voted on in the elections (article 2, point 4 of the Electoral Code).

Media's role in elections - promotion in the course of elections procedure
The CEC decided to adopt the Public Relations Strategy for the 2005 elections. The adopted strategy is organized on the base of CEC priorities for education, information and awareness of the citizens.
The education projects aim to reach out to a greater number of voters through the media and promotional forms. Unlike the past elections campaigns, this strategy forecasts to use different programs for different groups of voters, such as:
1. first time voters
2. the disabled
3. national minorities
4. Albanian citizens living abroad.
For the first time, the strategy of civic education for the election process shall include the conduct of a special program focusing on national minorities (Greek, Slavic, Roma, etc.). The CEC hopes that this strategy will enjoy the support of the EU or the contribution of other international organizations.
During the election campaign, the voter shall find himself surrounded by broad information, which will take the following forms:
- Spots (two kinds) and TV subtitles (two kinds)
(will be aired in 3 national and 26 local TVs)
- Radio spot
- (will be aired in 8 radio stations with the highest number of audience and the greatest coverage of the territory)
- Educational video (7 min) and TV programs (4)
- Publication of announcements in three magazines and 7 newspapers with the highest circulation in the country.
- Leaflets (300.000 pieces)
- Contest with prizes
- Promotional materials
(10.000 T-shirts, 10.000 pens, 10.000 hats)
- Banderoles (100 pieces), big improvised ballot boxes (50 pieces) and ads on the public transport.
Part of the information focuses on:
- voters' awareness to vote in elections;
- suffrage;
- giving information on the elections;
- voting purpose;
- who votes
- the ballots;
Whereas the major part of the information that will be conveyed in the above forms focuses on:
- the regular way of voting;
- the valid documents for the voter's identification in the polling station;
- election date
- voting hours;
- the rules to be followed by the voters during the voting process;
- the increase of civic awareness to the fairness of the voting process.
Media's role is informative, giving the individuals and groups the opportunity to learn about the political alternatives running in these elections.
On the other hand, simply informing the voters is not enough. Everything they know or what they want to choose becomes important on the Election Day. Therefore the voters should not just receive information on the political alternatives or the governing political forces. They should also be informed about the way they can express their will on the Election Day.
Voters' education on the way and voting procedures is one of the most important challenges of the institutions working on the election administration. The use of civic education methods, voter 's education through the media assumes an important role during election periods. The use of promotional and publicity methods makes the election message more acceptable for the public. The election message aims to inform the voters on the voting procedures and the way of filling in the ballot, but also making them aware of the right to exercise their right fairly and properly. In this way, through the media, we aim to highlight the role of citizens in the governance and the way they can exercise their right to vote.
It is important to have not only quantitative, but also qualitative voting, which means less invalid votes.
The institutions of election administration should have a cooperation policy with the media, in order to have an efficient and low-cost voters education campaign.

Character of the election campaign - campaign funding, campaign financing
The CEC administers the funds designated for the conduct of elections. The budget of the CEC constitutes a separate line in the state budget. The funds designated for elections are part of the annual budget of the year when the elections are held and must be available to the CEC 6 months prior to the end of the mandate of the Assembly or the local government units. Otherwise, the funds are part of the previous year's budget.
The funds designated by the state budget for the election campaign of the electoral subjects consist of funds for campaign financing, allocated according to letters (a), (b) and (c) of article 145 of the Electoral Code, as well as a supplementary sum for the campaign finance funds for that is used by the CEC to provide compensatory amounts according to letter (b) of section 2 of article 145 of this Code. The funds for campaign financing shall not be less than the total amount allocated to political parties in the preceding elections.
Besides State Budget funds, the electoral subjects may benefit in their election campaign from donations of private natural or legal persons. No natural or legal person shall give donations of more than 1 million lek ë or an equal amount in goods or services to the same electoral subject. Electoral subjects are to register and declare, in compliance with Article 145/1 of this Code, all donations received in the period from the date of the President 's decree setting the election date, until the elections date.
Political parties shall not spend for their election campaign, including that of their candidates, more than ten times the largest amount received by a party according to point 1 of article 145 of this Code.
No later than 45 days after the election date, all parties or independent candidates are to submit financial reports of their campaign to the CEC, in accordance with the forms and instructions issued by a CEC decision.

Election organs - character of the Central Election Commission and their highest authority
The Albanian Constitution provides for an independent body that is responsible for the organization and administration of elections in the country. This independent body is the Central Election Commission. It is a permanent Commission, composed of seven members, appointed for a seven-year mandate and it is renewed every three years. Two members are appointed by the Parliament; the President of the Republic of Albania also appoints two members, while the High Council of Justice appoints the other three members. The functioning of CEC as well as the electoral process is regulated by the Electoral Code, which was first approved in the year 2000 and afterwards amended continuously, before each general election that was held in Albania.

The CEC functions are specified in article 29 of the Electoral Code. The most important functions are as follows:
1. Issues, pursuant to the law and within its jurisdiction, decisions and instructions, which have a juridical power in the entire territory of the Republic of Albania.
2. Manages and checks, through its structures, the pre-electoral and electoral process.
3. Declares by decision, the result of elections on national level, based on the results declared by the Zone Election Commissions (ZEC) or Local Government Election Commissions (LGEC) and after the handling of complaints by the court. The results should be announced not later than three days after the CEC receives all official data from the election commissions and court decisions, pursuant to this Code. The decision is to be published in the Official Journal not later than three days after it has been taken.
4. Announces the winning candidates for deputies from the multi-member lists of candidates.
5. Conducts training courses at its own expenses not later than 30 days after the appointment of ZEC or LGEC members and at the end of the course, gives them a certificate after they take the test. The CEC conducts at its own expenses qualification sessions for Voting Centre Commissions (VCC) members on electoral legislation.
6. Appoints and dismisses, in accordance with this Code, members of ZEC and LGEC and supervises them in fulfilling their duties.
7. Examines and handles claims of electoral subjects on the conduct of election process, in accordance with the rules of this Code.
8. Imposes administrative sanctions against persons who commit administrative violations in the elections, as well as starts penal procedures on election-related offences.

The CEC structure
In functioning and fulfilling the duties that derive from the Constitution and Electoral Code, the CEC has its own administration, consisting of civil servants.
The CEC Secretary is the highest civil servant in the CEC administration and is appointed by CEC decision.
The CEC Departments are:
- Department of Election Commissions
- Department of Election Logistics
- Legal Department
- Department of Finance
- Department of Personnel
- Department of Foreign Relations
- Department of Technology and Information

The Central Elections Commission is based in Tirana (Address: Bulevardi "Dëshmorët e Kombit", Pallati i Kongreseve; Tel: + 355 4 242071; Fax: + 355 4 253707; Web site: www.cec.org.al; e-mail: infosec@cec.org.al)

Zone Elections Commissions (ZEC)
ZEC is responsible for the conduct of elections in its respective electoral zone (constituency). Its duties are established in the Electoral Code (article 36 of the Electoral Code), as well as in the sub-statutory acts issued by the CEC.
The ZEC consists of seven members and the secretary, who are appointed by the CEC pursuant to procedures provided for in article 34 of the Electoral Code.
The parties eligible to propose ZEC members are specified in Decision No.3 of the CEC, date 26.01.2005. The Zone Elections Commissions for 2005 National Assembly Elections consists of seven members proposed as follows:
a) One member is proposed by the Socialist Party of Albania;
b) One member is proposed by the Democratic Party of Albania;
c) One member is proposed by the New Democrat Party;
d) One member is proposed by the Social Democrat Party of Albania;
e) One member is proposed by the Republican Party;
f) One member is proposed by the Union of Human Rights Party;
g) The seventh member, following the result of the lot drawn at the CEC, in half of the ZEC-s is proposed by the Democratic Party of Albania, eligible to propose the seventh member in the ZEC-s with an odd number, while the Socialist Party of Albania has the right to propose the seventh member in the ZEC-s with even number.
The Zone Elections Commission is organized, functions and takes decisions based on the Electoral Code and other normative acts issued by the Central Elections Commission.

The Voting Centre Commissions (VCC)
The VCC is established and operates only during the election time. The VCC members are responsible for the conduct of elections in the voting centre (polling station), by performing the duties provided in the Electoral Code and secondary legislation issued pursuant to it (article 45 of the Electoral Code).
In case of elections to the National Assembly, the VCC is established in the same way as the ZEC. The body which appoints the members and the secretary of each VCC, is the respective ZEC of the electoral constituency, under which this voting centre falls.
Both members and the secretary of the Voting Centre Commission are appointed only for the election period. The proposals are made no later than 35 days prior to the election day and the ZEC appoints the VCC members no later than 5 days after the submission of the proposals. In any case, their appointment is to be made no later than 20 days prior to the election day. The VCC consists of seven members and it is established according to Instruction No.7, dated 13.09.2003, of the CEC.
The political parties registered by the CEC, which do not have any members in the VCC, have the right to designate one representative with no right to vote. This is also a right of independent candidates. If the VCC fails to reach a decision, the case is immediately sent for examination to the LGEC, which decides pursuant to article 38 or 44 of the Electoral Code.

Composition and establishment of Counting Teams
The ZEC establishes up to 5 Counting Teams no later than 2 (two) hours before the closing of the voting process, i.e. at 17.00 of Election Day. In order to meet this legal requirement, the ZEC first notifies the respective electoral subjects (local structures of political parties with members eligible to vote in the ZEC and VCC) to submit in writing the names of members and secretaries of Counting Teams at the ZEC.

At the same time, the ZEC notifies the respective electoral subjects to inform the members on the respective proposals for the appointment of VCT members and inform those teams to be present at the Vote Counting Place, no later than 2 (two) hours before the closing of the polls.
Election Day, guarantee of elections legitimacy
The National Assembly is elected once in four years, by general, direct and secret elections. The term of the National Assembly ends after four years, on the same date of the same month of its first meeting.
The Constitution grants to all the citizens who have reached the age of 18, the right to elect and be elected. This right is not granted to citizens who have been declared mentally incapable to act with a final court ruling, while people who are serving their imprisonment sentence are deprived of the right to be elected.
FAIR ELECTIONS should ensure that each citizen casts his vote freely, free from any intimidation and ensure all the political rights he can exercise during the election process.
EQUAL SUFFRAGE implies that each citizen's vote should have the same value. Under majority voting systems, equal suffrage means that the population of electoral constituencies should be approximately equal. In addition, it is also required that in proportional systems, the number of representatives for each district should be proportional to the size of the electorate.
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE requires that all eligible citizens should be given the right to vote. There should be an effective, impartial, non-discriminatory voter-registration procedure both for the voters and the candidates.
VOTING BY SECRET BALLOT necessitates that voters mark their ballots alone, in the privacy of a secure voting booth, and in a manner that the marked ballot cannot be viewed before it is deposited in the ballot box.
In elections to the National Assembly, two ballot boxes are available in the voting centre:
- one for the candidate for deputy in the single-member constituency,
- one for the political parties or electoral coalitions.
The people who are allowed to stay in the voting centre during the voting procedures are:
I. Members and secretary of the VCC,
II. Voters who are following the voting procedures to the end,
III. Accredited Albanian and foreign observers.

Legal remedies - election organs, courts, Electoral College
The system of disputes resolution in electoral matters appears to be largely dynamic. Prior to each election, political parties seem to have the will to introduce amendments to the chapter of the electoral code regulating dispute resolution.
The current provisions of the Albanian electoral law provide for a two-scale system for presenting complaints and appeals.
Complaints can be filed at the Central Election Commission as the main body to resolve any electoral dispute. Political parties and candidates may file two types of complains before CEC. The first type consist of complaints against the decisions of Zone Election Commissions, and mainly on the decision for the approving of results in the specified electoral zone, while the second type deals with invalidity of elections which concerns a larger number of problems which may make ground for invalidity. These two types of complain are distinguished by different deadlines for their filing. The complains against a decision of the zone electoral commission should be filed at the CEC within two days while the requests for invalidity should be filed at the CEC within ten days after the election day.
All eligible parties may appeal a decision of the CEC at the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a special court established to only resolve disputes on electoral matters. The electoral law provides that the decisions of the Electoral College are final and no further appeals can be filed upon its decision. The Electoral College is made up of 8 judges of the appeal courts, selected by draw and nominated by the High Council of Justice. The composition of the Electoral College is meant to ensure professionalism, transparency and what is more important, to ensure a non-partisan resolution of all electoral disputes.

Elections results - changes of power relations of political parties
The election result for the respective electoral zone (constituency) is issued by the ZEC, no later than 17.00 of the following elections day. The procedures of issuing of results in the Election Zone, are as follows:
The Chairman of the ZEC reads out the content of the Table of the Results, where it is voted for candidates for each voting centre and its Secretary writes the results on the preliminary tabulation sheet of results.
Each commission member verifies the accuracy of the data entered in the Tabulation Sheet of Voting Results for candidates for each VCC; at the same time it verifies the tabulation of these data in the preliminary table, verifies the Record of Findings kept for the respective VC. Approval of ZEC members of the data is recorded in the Records Book of Meetings, which is signed by all ZEC members.
The CEC declares, with its decision, the final results of elections on national scale, based on the results declared by the ZEC, or as appropriate, the LGEC, and after the court examination of appeals has been completed. The declaration is to be made no later than 3 days from the date when the CEC receives all official data from the election commissions and court decisions, as provided for in this Code. The decision should be published in the Official Journal no later than 3 days after it has been ruled.
Finally, the CEC announces the winning candidates for deputy from the multi-member lists.

Role of information technology in elections (preparation of voters register, ballot counting, elections frauds, etc.)
The processing of mass data in an election process would be impossible without the up-to-date Information Technology. One of the top priorities of the Central Election Commission of Albania is the utilization and updating of information technology in the election processes.
The computerised election register was created for the first time in Albania in 2000. Before that, the voters list was manually prepared by the civil offices of the local governments. Thanks to the support of such donors as UNDP and IFES, a data base was established, where all the information manually prepared in the respective civil offices was processed. Even though in the 2001 parliamentary election the data base was not a CEC property, the latter ran the process of preparation of voters list throught the acts that it issued. It was only in 2003 that the CEC had its data base and its team for the use and development of application programs.

The CEC processes all the information in this data base. The creation and development of all the data base with all the constituent areas and the development of application programs, has made it possible the processing of the whole election information that helps the CEC in the process of election administration and the electoral subjects in following the election process from their viewpoint.
The use of information technology made it possible the release of election results in a shorter time. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, through the fax connection in the 100 polling stations with the CEC data base, they informed the electoral subjects and the public on the election results for each five polling stations up to the release of the final result.
The use of IT has greatly faciliated the publication process of the election bulletin and release of various reports that help the observation, especially the electoral subjects. The CEC is considering on-line connection of all the ballot counting centers with the CEC data base. This will make possible the timely release of election results.
The use of IT in the public relations through the CEC webpage, has been a source of information on the CEC activity and has made its activity more transparent. The information published in these pages serves mainly the electoral subjects. In order to be of a greater service to the voters, a webpage was designed, with information adapted to them. (votaime.com and myvote05.com)
The use of information technology has been efficient even in the communication in the CEC. The elctronic communication network in the CEC has been constantly developed and now a more advanced system of documents ' adminstration is being consolidated, according to a certain hierarchy.