Open Society Foundation for Albania

	30 May 2007 Dialog civil society - government aiming at the reduction of informality 11 May 2007 Second report on the activity of Albanian Parliament is published 4 April 2007 Memorandum of the farmers for exports complying European standards 29 March 2007 Monitoring of the parliamentary process of drafts law debating 28 March 2007 The civil society is in favor of the creation of a state committee against blood feud 16 March 2007 Monitoring of the migration strategy 26 February 2007 Signature of the Memorandum of Understanding 18-20 February 2007 Parallel counting of votes 13 February 2007 The Civil Society demands the relaxation of conflictuality of the election campaign 3 February 2007 Local elections 2007 online by the MJAFT Movement 30 January 2007 Seminar on “Improving public transportation in the region of Tirana” 23 Janauary 2007 Memorandum of civil society to protect its own constitutional rights 18 January 2007 Call of the civil society for a civilized election campaign 22 December 2007 Winners announced for the “Public-private partnership” contest 19 December 2006 Workshop "Albania's Interim Agreement with the EU and its effects on the Albanian Business" 1 December 2006 Debate of the civil society about the new draft law concerning the State Police 21 November 2006 Presenting the findings of the survey “Albania and the EU – Perceptions and Realities” 18 November 2006 The Conference “Albania and Greece – Mutual perceptions” 6-10 November 2006 Seminar on the challenges of European Integration 3 November 2006 Debate about book policies in the countries of Western Balkans 3 November 2006 AUBG closes recruitment ceremony with fourth-grade students of high schools in Tirana 1 November 2006 Organization that builds school wins case against Albanian government 14 October 2006 Standards in pre-university education 10 October 2006 Presentation of the monitoring report ivote.com - January-July 2006 16 September 2006 Historical turns and the return of memory

13 February 2007

Frequent incidents in these days of the pre-election preparations brought together five civil society organizations in a joint press conference held today on 13 February at the Rogner Hotel. Leaders and representatives of the Soros Foundation, the Institute for Legal and Policy Studies, the MJAFT Movement, the Albanian Helsinki Committee and the Center for Gender Alliance noted with regret that conflictuality and incidents have become frequent occurrences during the pre-election period. Hate speech and violation of the privacy of candidates have caused the concern of civil society organizations and the public at large in Albania.

As representatives of some of the most important civil society organizations in the country, they called upon the political parties, the electoral staff, the candidates and the media to concentrate on the alternatives, options and projects put forth by the candidates. Citizens desire to know what the candidates are capable of doing, what kind of positive change they propose to bring in the lives of their children, what they can do for their fellow citizens in order to be able to make an informed decision in casting their vote.

In addition, these civil society representatives expressed concern over the announcement made a couple of days ago by the Head of the Central Election Committee that the election process is in serious jeopardy due to an abundance of technical problems. In the circumstances when elections may fail simply due to technical problems, the use of hate speech, incidents and friction created by the contenders further jeopardize the possibility of holding free and fair elections. Therefore, they asked the political forces in general, the two main parties in particular, to relax tension and conflictuality and bring the campaign to a closure in a civilized and democratic manner.

The participants in the conference pointed out that the civil society is determined to monitor the election process in order to press towards having free and fair elections. Towards that end:

A selected group of NGOs under the aegis and support of the President of the Republic of Albania is monitoring the observance of the Election Code of Ethics;
About three thousand monitors from the civil society organizations will monitor the voting process and the counting of votes throughout the country;
The Soros Foundation has committed support to a project designed to publish the results of the ballots once members of the counting commissions sign off on the ballot results.

The Albanian civil society announced in this conference its undivided attention to guaranteeing the vote of every Albanian citizen and to efforts to hold a fair and civilized election process.