Training of the Local Government commissions  is a legal obligation

Albanian Helsinki Committee followed attentively the statement of  the  date August ,23 released from Mr. Ilirjan Celibashi, head of the CEC, in which he highlights that there are gaps in the organized workshops for the training of LGEC-s. AHC considers this declaration as a right and distressing one. Related to this, it is worth mentioning that the final report that AHC has designed for the monitoring of the parliamentary elections of 2001, pointed out among other things that one  of the gaps was the delayed, incomplete unqualitative training of the electoral commission members. What is worse, this phenomenon , although at a reduced level, is still persistant in these elections.

     It is a fact, that the provisions of the Electoral Code impose on the Local Government Zone Commissions  (LGZC)  to verify the set of  documents for the registration, the preliminary announcement of the voters lists, the examination of the applications for changes in these lists, etc. Non accomplishment of thes tasks endangers the normal proceedings of the elections, as well as the citizen's rights. Members of LGZC-s who avoid training  unreasonably , or due to different reasons  can not execute  these tasks imposed by law.

     This is why AHC considers as necessary to suggest to the Central Electoral Committee (CEC), that based on the artcicle 42 of the Electoral Code , not to be hesitant to make a decison depending on the case, about  the dismissal of those LGZC-s that do not execute the defined tasks, by replacing them with other members. In the above suggestion, AHC takes into account the fact that LGZC-s are created according to the political parties proposals that their training is a legal obligation and under CEC's responsibility.

 Tiranë, 25.08.2003