Celibashi: There is interest in expanding electronic voting, it does not seem that there will be changes to the Electoral Code

11:56 23/11/2022

Regarding the request of the Central Election Commission for electronic voting in 6 municipalities, which is worth 3 billion lek, the Chairman of the CEC stated in a statement to the media that he has evidenced that there is an interest in expanding electronic voting.

Ilirjan Celibashi: The development of electronic voting in these 6 municipalities, the next month at most, otherwise even if this money will be possible to give to the Central Election Commission, the implementation process, including the procurement of equipment, requires time for that that remains is not enough.

Question: Is there a commitment of the political parties to enable this, given that their agreement is needed?

Ilirjan Celibashi: I have not detected an impetus from the political parties from all sides regarding this issue. There are sporadic statements of their representatives regarding the interest to expand electronic voting. But from what I have personally ascertained, there does not seem to be a strong push and why there is equal interest.

The Chairman of the Celibashi CEC has expressed that he believes that there will be no last-minute changes regarding the Territorial Reform and the Electoral Code.

Question: The Electoral Reform Commission seems to have stalled. Are you afraid of last-minute changes that may affect the work of the CEC?

Ilirjan Celibashi: It seems that there will be no last minute changes to the Electoral Code. I believe that this regulatory framework that is in force regarding local elections will be in force and there will be no changes. If these changes are profound, they will negatively affect the election, but it does not seem to change anything.

Regarding the accusations of foreign funding for political parties, Celibashi said that such a thing constitutes a criminal offense and such cases are handled by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court.

Question: Political accusations about Russian funding continue. Is the Electoral Code alone enough to stop these foreign financings?

Ilirjan Celibashi: There are provisions in the Criminal Code and the Electoral Code regarding this issue and these are issues that are being addressed by the Prosecution body. It constitutes criminal violations of the law which are classified as criminal offenses and as such, they will have to be dealt with by the Prosecution and the Court./broread