Unlocking the Potential of Online Political Finance Reporting & Disclosure Systems

Transparency of politics, particularly political finance, is a cornerstone of every democratic system. International IDEA supports global efforts to improve political finance transparency, including in the Western Balkans, where the revised EU enlargement methodology has placed the issue amongst the Fundamentals of Democracy.

The Central Elections Commission (CEC) in Albania has prioritized strengthening oversight of campaign political finances through digitalization. International IDEA in cooperation with Rule of Law Centre of Finland are supporting the CEC, political parties and civil society, primarily by introducing successful models and providing expertise on digitalizing political finance reporting and disclosure. The Institute and the RoL Centre also support the broader efforts of civil society organizations to improve their watchdog role and ability to track money flows in politics.

Following the expert discussion of September 2022, the introduction of the Roadmap for Digital Reporting and Disclosure of Political Finance for Albania and the recent launch from the CEC’s of a digital platform for political finance reporting and disclosure built with the support of the Council of Europe (CoE), International IDEA is hosting a peer – to – peer dialogue between renowned international watchdogs and local actors. This dialogue seeks to support the local actors in their challenging task of monitoring money flows in the May 14^th Local Elections campaign by means of exchanging best practices and lessons learnt over the years. 

This event is organized in the framework of the project “Integrity and Trust in Elections in Albania: Fostering Political Finance Transparency and the Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies” co-implemented with the Rule of Law Centre of Finland.

AGENDA

 — Opening Remarks

• Ilirjan Celibashi, State Elections Commissioner
• Sam van der Staak, Director for Europe, International IDEA
• Niklas Wilhelmsson, Head of Democracy and Elections Unit, Ministry of Justice of Finland

  —  Albania in the Global/European Perspective of Digitalization of Political Finance Reporting and Disclosure

• Moderator: Elvana Kurti, International IDEA
• Valbona Ballgjini, Director of Financial Control and Internal Audit, CEC: Political finance transparency, a strategic priority for CEC Albania
• Ersida Sefa, Senior Project Officer, CoE: Presentation of the digital platform
• Yukihiko Hamada, Program Manager, Money in Politics, International IDEA Global trends
• Jorge Valladares, Political Integrity Policy Lead, Transparency International Secretariat: From Political Finance Disclosure to Preventing Political Corruption: potential uses of political finance data

  —  The Challenge of Navigating Large Amounts of Data – How can Digital Disclosure Systems Support the Work of Watchdogs

• Moderator: Jorge Valladares, Transparency International
• Oriana Ivković Novokmet, Executive Director, GONG: Gong's Political Finance Database
• Besar Likmeta, Editor in Chief, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Albania
• Klodiana Kapo, Executive Director, Faktoje.al
• Edlira Cepani, Chair of Women Network on Equality in Decision Making

 — Coffee break

 — EMB-CSOs Collaboration in Improving Electoral Campaign Monitoring

• Moderator: Blerta Hoxha, International IDEA
• Niklas Wilhelmsson, Head of Democracy and Elections Unit, Ministry of Justice of Finland: Fostering a constructive EMB-CSOs collaboration: Finnish perspective on how the EMB could engage with CSOs and Media in their Political Finance implementation efforts
• Valbona Ballgjini, Director of Financial Control and Internal Audit CEC: CEC - CSOs collaboration in Albania
• Oriana Ivković Novokmet, Executive Director, GONG: Croatia Experience on CSOs collaboration with EMB in Monitoring Electoral Campaigns
• Antuela Male, Election Analyst, Coalition for Reforms, Integration and Consolidated Institutions (KRIIK)
• Erjon Tase, Executive Director, Academy of Political Studies (ASP)
• Migen Qeraxhi, Leader of Civic Resistance

 — Remarks; Q&A from participants

 — Closing remarks

• ​Ilirjan Celibashi, State Elections Commissioner
• Sam van der Staak, Director for Europe, International IDEA

 — Networking Lunch

The event will be held in person/face to face. It will be held in Albanian and English (simultaneous interpretation will be provided).