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Investigation - 'Electoral Recruitment'/ How the Public Administration Was Inflated on the Eve of the May 11 Elections
2025-06-14 00:40:53 / POLITIKË
A few months before the parliamentary elections on May 11, employment in the state expanded. Official data from the Institute of Statistics show that during the first quarter of this year, the number of employees in the public administration increased by 1,109 people.
Faktoje.al referred to INSTAT figures, where the number of employees in the public sector reached 185,387 people at the end of March. Compared to the same period in 2024, the number of employees in the state has increased by 3,630 individuals.
Although legally employment in the state before elections is prohibited, data over the years shows that the public administration in Albania has grown, especially when there have been elections.
The most typical case was in the past parliamentary elections of 2021. INSTAT data shows that employment in the state sector expanded within a year by 7,812 employees, or 4.5% more.
" Electoral recruitment is a tradition followed in Albania, especially in recent years when in three electoral processes the patronage system has dictated the need for maximum mobilization of human resources, " Afrim Krasniqi, director of the Institute for Political Studies, told Faktoje.al.
According to him, this phenomenon is not new, but has taken on more serious proportions in recent years, as evidenced by data for 2021.
" Despite being one of the main criticisms in ODIHR and OSCE reports over the years and there have been recommendations for legislative intervention to prevent such a situation, progress is completely minimal ," adds Krasniqi.
He emphasizes that in such cases, “the Prosecutor’s Office and SPAK should conduct an in-depth investigation into the use of state resources in the electoral campaign,” while “the Supreme State Audit Office should investigate the practices followed, so that such phenomena do not repeat.” According to him, this is an issue that “ should be addressed as a priority, also within the framework of the European integration process. ”
Migen Qiraxhi from Qëndresa Qytetare also emphasizes to Faktoje.al the importance of this issue, stating that "not only us as a local actor, but now even OSCE-ODIHR reiterates that the use of state resources in elections is one of the main problems in the race for power ."
He underlines that more than material assets, “the most important weight is occupied by human resources, or civil servants,” adding that “if we have a problem with the use of civil servants in the campaign, increasing their number multiplies the problem and also multiplies the electoral benefits of the ruling party.”
According to Qiraxhi, this is one of the reasons why “our administration only grows, to the point of creating an administration twice as high as European countries.” He recalls that “over the last five years, the Civic Resistance has denounced over 100 cases of the use of the administration in the campaign and a good part of them have been found to be used by the state for the campaign.”
In line with concerns over the electoral use of public administration, the Chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, during a meeting with the leadership of the DP branch in Brussels, declared that "on May 11, there were no elections, but an electoral farce."
He continues to accuse the government of having built “a gigantic machine” of vote buying through the abuse of executive power, including measures prohibited by law. According to Berisha, one of the most aggressive mechanisms was the massive increase in employment.
" He employed over 10,000 people in the local and central government during the elections ," Berisha declared, among other things.
The statement of the President of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, that during the elections over “10 thousand people were employed in the local and central government”, is not currently supported by official data. According to INSTAT, the number of employees in the state sector for the first quarter of the year, on the eve of the parliamentary elections, has increased by only 1109 people compared to the previous quarter. Thus, although the concern about the use of the administration for electoral purposes remains legitimate, the claim of 10 thousand employments is incorrect in relation to official sources such as INSTAT. Esmeralda Topo, Faktoje.al
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