Young People are Strengthening Albania’s Electoral Integrity

Albania is a member of NATO and a strong ally of the United States. The country’s advancement toward membership in the European Union, though decades-long, is progressing at an accelerated pace. To get there, representative institutions such as parliament and critical events such as elections need to be strengthened to accommodate the country’s often tempestuous politics. 

When asked to identify the top three characteristics of a functional democracy, 43% of Albanian citizens prioritized democratic elections, along with 56% who cited freedom of expression, and 38% who emphasized equal justice for all, based on a National Democratic Institute (NDI) regional poll conducted in six Western Balkan countries in 2021. Similarly, in the 2024 International Republican Institute (IRI) poll, only 37% of Albanian citizens believe that elections in Albania are free, while 40% expressed concerns about the electoral process and 19% stated they do not consider elections to be free. 

Qendresa Qyteteare’s work offers a compelling example of how strategic support, when paired with technical assistance, institutional partnerships and sustained civic engagement, can drive meaningful improvements in electoral transparency and accountability. By acting as both a reliable partner to the election authority and an advocate for citizens, Qendresa is helping to expose instances of misuse of public resources for electoral purposes and to promote free and fair electoral practices in Albania. With NDI’s support, these civic and youth groups are empowered not only to sustain their important work but to amplify their impact—ensuring more lasting and meaningful contributions to the integrity and accountability of Albania’s democratic processes. Rigels Xhemollari from QQ says that "NDI's help has fundamentally transformed our ability to act as effective watchdogs, turning our observations into tangible demands for accountability and truly strengthening the integrity of our elections. It has created the direct channels for us to bring forward evidence to the oversight bodies."

Turning Electoral Complaints into Catalysts for Reform

During the 2023 local elections, Qendresa was among the most active civil society groups using the CEC’s public denunciation mechanism – an innovation introduced with NDI’s assistance in 2021 to report electoral violations. The complaints it submitted revealed instances of public resource misuse for electoral purposes and persistent irregularities in how public institutions reported their activities, a long-standing challenge in Albanian elections. Unlike many groups that simply reported violations and left further action to the CEC, Qendresa took a more proactive approach by becoming a formal party to each case it submitted. Not only did the organization file complaints, it pursued each case through formal channels, presenting credible evidence, robust legal arguments and concrete recommendations to improve the system. This legal and institutional engagement went a step further. In partnership with NDI election experts, Qendresa Qytetare conducted a comprehensive review of the CEC’s administrative investigation procedures, uncovering critical legal and implementation gaps. With NDI’s facilitation, they presented their findings at a high-level dialogue that brought together CEC leadership, parliamentarians, party representatives, peer election watchdog groups and legal experts. The CEC took note, later inviting Qendresa Qytetare to share its analysis during the commission’s internal post-election review, a sign of growing institutional trust and openness to civil society input. “That moment signaled a shift – from being observers to becoming real partners in strengthening the system,” Qendresa’s team recalls.