Home > 1.1 Universal suffrage > ALBANIA- Joint Opinion on the Electoral Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 78
 

Voter registration is regulated in Article 46 to Article 57 of the new code. Voter lists have been a source of controversy for past elections in Albania. Controversy over voter lists has extended not only to issues of accuracy of the lists, but also to the identification documents used as a basis for registration, and for identification before voting. Problems in this area have been critically addressed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in its Report on the Observation of the parliamentary elections in Albania (3 July 2005), which dealt also with problems relating to addresses. Due to the high level of distrust among the political actors in Albania, it has been difficult to separate perception from reality concerning the degree of “inaccuracy” of voter lists.  Regardless of whether the problem is one of perception or reality, the recent amendments confirm the efforts to improve the accuracy of voter registers.  In line with previous OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, the new code provides for a voter registration system based on national computerised and modernised civil registers kept at local Civil Status Offices.  The bulwark of this effort is the creation and maintenance of a permanent data base that contains reliable and accurate information on citizens.