Home > 2.1 The competent bodies and their tasks > ALBANIA - Joint Opinion on the Draft Law on the Legislative Initiative of the Citizens
 
 
 
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Paragraph 28
 

The CEC’s interventions in the procedure concerning the collection of signatures appear both burdensome and legally unnecessary. The CEC is a public body, whose functions are related to the elections, while the collection of signatures for the presentation of a civic legislative initiative reflects the free citizens’ participation in the decision-making process of public authorities. Article 6.8 provides the data to be presented to the CEC in order to initiate the public initiative process. The number of required documents to be presented is very high and the request for clarifications on the object of the initiative is excessive too. The requirement for the original identity documents to be verified by a notary as well as by the CEC also appears as excessively burdensome. While the collection of signatures should indeed be regulated by this draft law, the intervention of the CEC should take place only after the collection of signatures. For example, the draft law correctly leaves the allocation of public places to the decision of the mayors, which should act at the request of the representation/representative committee, conceived as an informal subject until the time limit provided for the collection of signatures has expired. The CEC should only be in charge of the verification of signatures and the simultaneous legal recognition or the representation/representative committee. The Venice Commission and ODIHR recommend involving the CEC in the process only after the collection of signatures.