Hearing Of The Commission On Security & Cooperation In Europe: U.S. Helsinki Commission - Albania's Elections And The Challenge Of Democratic Transition

Statement

Hearing Of The Commission On Security & Cooperation In Europe: U.S. Helsinki Commission

Subject: Albania's Elections And The Challenge Of Democratic Transition

Chaired By: Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fl)

Witnesses: Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Al); Rep. Eliot Engel, Co-Chair, Albania Issues Caucus; Ambassador Aleksander Sallabanda, Ambassador To The United States, Republic Of Albania; Elez Biberaj, Director, Eurasia Division, Voice Of America; Jonas Rolett, Regional Director For South Central Europe, Open Society Institute; Robert Benjamin, Regional Director For Central And Eastern Europe, National Democratic Institute

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REP. HASTINGS: If I could ask you to take your seats, it would be appreciated by us all. We will try to go as best we can. As we all know, parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in Albania on June 28th, just a little over three weeks from today. There is concern that these elections will not meet OSCE standards. We will hear our panelists talk about these concerns and the prospects of these elections.

The Helsinki Commission has been in contact with the Albanian Embassy, which has been informing us of efforts to address outstanding electoral issues. First among these problems seems to be the question of voter identification and the large number of voters who do not have a passport and have not yet received the new identification cards enabling them to vote. I won't go into further details regarding this election; I will leave that to our panelists.

I do, however, want to express regret over the fact that such election issues continue to exist and to mar Albania's democratic credentials. Even if a last-minute rush to correct things ultimately proves successful, it will only repeat a disturbing pattern from previous elections of not taking action quickly enough to make a real difference for the next regularly scheduled election four years later.

The Helsinki Commission has traditionally used upcoming elections as an opportunity to take a closer look at developments in that country as a whole. The commission has therefore asked our panelists to look not only at the elections, but also at broader trends and developments in the country, such as the development of civil society and efforts to combat corruption. I am going to abbreviate on my remarks. I will get to our panelists. But first, I would like our colleague, Mr. Aderholt, if he has any comments, you will go forward at this time.

REP. ADERHOLT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is an honor to be here today for this hearing. Albania is one of those countries that has progressed so much over the last several decades and it really has changed a lot. And unfortunately -- unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know how you look at it -- but I was not able to visit Tirana in Albania under the dictatorship of a few years ago, but I know that the change that has occurred in that country is drastic from the last couple decades.

And the progress they are making over there -- any time you have a country that goes through a transition like that, you are going to have small changes that take place and there is going to be problems that occur. But at the same time, certainly, I know that the leadership there is working toward trying to move in the right direction. And we want to help them facilitate that to try to move in the right direction as well. So I look forward to the hearing and thank you for calling this hearing today.

REP. HASTINGS: All right. I would like to take cognizance of the fact I met him when I came him that Ambassador Sallabanda is here. Ambassador, thank you for being here with us. And I will be working with your office. I plan -- I made the decision yesterday -- day before yesterday -- that I am going to come out with the team from the parliamentary assembly to the elections. That means I am going to miss a vote here in my parliament, so I need you all to say I was doing important work by being in Albania. (Chuckles.)

Our panelists today are probably the best Washington has to offer regarding longstanding expertise on Albania. And first, we have my colleague and good friend and a person that has been to Albania, perhaps, as much as almost anyone in Congress, if not all of us combined, Representative Eliot Engel of New York, the co-chair of the Albanian Issues Caucus in the United States Congress and a longtime observer of the Western Balkans.

He has just returned from a visit to Albania and we look forward to his first-hand views. And Eliot, I know you, I and Mr. Aderholt have other responsibilities, so I am going to ask you, and if our panelists don't mind, I would ask the congressman to go first in light of his busy schedule. But you have the floor, sir.

REP. ENGEL: Thank you very much, Congressman Hastings. And good morning, everyone. It is good to be back to the Longworth building. I have not been here in a number of years. I had my office here for many, many years. And now my office is ably held down by Congressman Aderholt. He has made improvements, I must say. And it is good to be on this panel with so many distinguished colleagues, all of whom I know and admire and respect.

And I just want to, before I start, Alcee, just say a word about you. We served together on the Foreign Affairs Committee for many years. And you went on to bigger and better things. But you and I have always sat down and talked about many important things around the globe, particularly in Europe where you have really shined. And just yesterday, we were sitting down on the House floor and talking about it. And you certainly have carried the ball for so many of us in all these important issues. And I want to just thank you for your hard work through the years. So thank you very, very much.

I chair the Albanian Issues Caucus. In fact, I formed the Albanian Issues Caucus when I first came to Congress back in 1989, did it with Susan Molinari, who at that time was my co-chair. We have had many different co-chairs through the years. And now I am pleased to do it with Mark Kirk, who is my co-chair. I want to just tell you how I happened to get involved with Albania. I come from New York City, particularly from the borough of the Bronx in New York City. And during the 1970s, I noticed that many people were moving to the Bronx who were of Albanian extraction.

I did not quite understand it at the time because they told me they were from Yugoslavia. But they were Albanian. And I did not know how can you be from Yugoslavia, but be Albanian. And that is when I started to learn about the former Yugoslavia and Kosovo and part of the Yugoslavia where many ethnic Albanians lived. And then when I came to Congress, I started to champion the cause of a free and independent Kosovo, I was the first one the House floor who took to it. And, of course, it was achieved last February of 2008 -- a nice birthday present for me because they declared independence the day before my birthday and then the United States recognized independent Kosovo on my birthday.

I have been to Albania and Kosovo many, many, many times. I had just gotten back from Albania about two week ago. And I can tell you unequivocally that the United States has many friends around the world, some who want, unfortunately, to be our adversaries. But there are no better friends the United States has than the Albanian people. The Albanian people and both Albania and Kosovo and in the other parts of the countries in the Balkans, Macedonia, Montenegro are so pro- American that when Kosovo declared independence, there were as many American flags in the street, huge flags, people waving them, as there were Albanian flags or Kosovo flags.

It is just an amazing, amazing thing to see. So when you go to Albania, you have this outpouring of affection from everybody, both political parties, people who aren't political. They hear about America. They want to be part of America. They are absolutely delighted to be part of NATO. And they want to become part of the European Union as soon as possible. You have to remember the mindset in Albania.

Albania for many, many years during the Cold War was ruled by an oppressive communist dictator named Enver Hoxha. He was as oppressive as you could think. In fact, Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Bloc were too mild for him. He broke with the Soviet Bloc because they were not communist enough, joined with the hard-line communists in China in Beijing and eventually broke with them because they were not hard-line enough.

If you went to Albania, as I first did, I was one of the first people from the West to go there back in 1993, you saw dotting the landscape of Albania these huge round bunkers. They were not huge. They were actually each small -- 2 million of them all along the countryside, all along the coastline, everywhere, to prepare for an eventual American invasion. This was supposed to be a fortress so that the Albanians could withstand an American invasion -- absolutely ludicrous. And for 49 years or 50 years, they were fed a steady dose of anti-American rhetoric. We were the evil -- we were evil, we were terrible and on and on.

So when I first got to Albania in 1993, it was about a year after Secretary of State James Baker had arrived there. And they gave him a tumultuous welcome, an outpouring of goodwill. And when I went there, there wasn't even a hotel, a Western-type hotel in Tirana, which is the capital, that you could even stay in. So I wound up staying in Enver Hoxha's guesthouse, the former dictator who had been deposed, his guesthouse, which, believe me, was no great place to stay. But it was better than anyplace else that you can get.

And the outpouring when I made my first speech out in the street of Tirana, the outpouring of "USA, USA" was unbelievable. And I was told at the time that they were able to get Italian television and radio during the Cold War and they kept in touch many people through Italy. And so, you know, well, they fed a steady dose of anti- Americanism for 50 years, 50 years is a long time. It is a couple of generations. You know, would they believe it? And the beautiful thing of it is they did not believe any of it.

And so when you go there, you will be welcomed as the great friend. It is really nice to see such a pro-U.S. ally. And that is why I am delighted that they are part of NATO and hope they join the European Union soon. Now, in a few weeks you know there is an election there. And, of course, just like any democracy, there are pros and cons and pullings and tugging. I must tell you the last election was held in 19 -- sorry, in 2005. And I was there as a monitor with a bunch of other people. One of my sons came with me. And it was just wonderful to see democracy in action in Albania.

It was July 4th or 5th right along the July 4th holiday of 2005. And I saw long lines of people waiting to vote, people going to the polls, people showing their identification. The remark I made was I thought I was back in the United States because it was really just participatory democracy, government. Considering the background of the country, it was amazing. So now they are having the first election since I was there in 2005 in a couple of weeks.

And essentially, it boils down to two parties, the Democratic Party, whose prime minister is now in office, Sali Berisha. And the Socialist Party, whose candidate is Edi Rama, who is the mayor of Tirana, which is the capital of Albania. The polls are very close. And as you would see in any election, there are charges and countercharges being thrown around. The main problem or question this time around is voter identification cards. They are being issued for really the first time, I believe, in terms of an election. And you have to have one in order to be able to vote.

The problem has been that a lot of people have not applied for them. And people were very concerned that will everyone who wants a voter identification card to vote be able to get one in time for the election? Now, if you talk to the Democratic Party or the government that is already in power, they will tell you absolutely, yes. If you talk to the Socialist Party, they will tell you absolutely, no. The United States Embassy, of course, has been monitoring it. The problem was that the voter identification cards were deemed expensive. And now I believe with negotiation and everything else, the cost of it has been down to about $2, which everyone thinks is fair and equitable.

And my best observation is that people who want the cards can get them. It may take a little bit of time, and I encourage both political parties to urge their supporters to request these cards. I had the great honor of addressing the Albanian Parliament a couple of weeks ago when I was there. And it was a really great honor to do it. And the message I was pushing was that every person who wants to vote should be allowed to vote. And we should facilitate -- they should facilitate getting people cards. And if there was any impediment in terms of just physically being able to produce the cards, they should let people know and understand it so that perhaps others could help in terms of getting it done.

I believe that it will be done and that people who want to vote will have the cards. And I think both parties will urge their supporters to get the cards. And I think the polls show it is a very close election. In fact, some polls show the Socialist Party ahead and some polls show the Democratic Party ahead. Whoever is elected, I believe, will maintain a strongly pro-American policy. And, you know, there are always -- as it gets closer and closer to an election, there are always charges. As of May 28th, I am told 1.2 million applications for ID cards have been filed. According to the GOA, there are about 300,000 eligible voters without passports who have yet to register for a card because you can use a passport if you don't want to use the card. But 20,000 ID cards are being produced per day. And at that rate, there is no physical barrier to getting the remaining 300,000 cards if voters apply.

The State Department reports that it has no information that the cards are being distributed in areas favorable to one party or another -- that it basically has been fair in terms of the distribution. And we need to keep monitoring it. I think that is very important because we don't want hundreds of thousands of people to be without ID cards on Election Day. Now, these elections will obviously impact Albania's ability to get into the EU someday. And I hope it is personally sooner rather than later. And the current parliamentary mandate expires in 2009. So that is why we are having the elections there now.

Now, the OSCE has appointed a chief election observer. Her name is Audrey Glover. And I believe she is from Britain. And she was the ODIHR's chief observer mission in Albania's flawed 2006 election. Her report strongly criticized the election, angering Sali Berisha, who is the president. And Berisha initially objected to Glover, but later relented and said that he would accept her, which I think is a good thing. Frankly, I urged him to accept her, even though he feels that she may be somewhat biased in terms of the way she might report it. I believe that it was better to accept her than reject her. Countries cannot decide who was going to monitor them. That has to be, you know, an agency like OSCE making that decision.

One of the things that I was concerned about is before the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party reserved their dispute over the ID cards, the Socialist Party's Edi Rama was threatening a boycott of the elections. This had happened once before. And my feeling is, of course, that if a party feels they are going to lose and then they say they are going to boycott and they come up with all these reasons why they are going to boycott because they say things are unfair, that may not necessarily be the case because if you are losing, you boycott and you say it is not fair.

So I hope there is no boycott. I hope it is going to be fair. I believe it will be fair. In any election, you always have some difficulties that need to be worked out. But by and large from what I am seeing, from what the embassy has been reporting, from what the monitors are saying, this seems to be a free and fair election.

Now, there are 140 members of the unicameral assembly. And they will be elected through a new regional proportional system adopted as part of the December '09 electoral code. Some have alleged that the new system reinforces the dominance of the Democratic and Socialist blocs at the expense of smaller or alternative political parties. I can't judge that. Those are some of the charges. And others contend that the small parties just confuse the system and make it more difficult. And by doing it this way, it will help consolidate the Albanian political system into a two-party situation similar to what we have in the United States.

Let me also say that, of course, as I mentioned before, on April 1st of this year, Albania and Croatia both joined the NATO alliance. I want to also say that every time I go to Albania, there seems to be tremendous progress. When I first went there in 1993, Tirana, the capital, was just a city of -- it was drab. There were hardly any restaurants. They had no hotels. Today you go to Tirana; it is like a Western capital. There are all kinds of cafes, young people, music, hotels, like any capital city in Europe. So it is really, for me, tremendous to see.

One of the things that Sali Berisha has made one of his -- the pinnacle of his regime is they are building a 160-kilometer road from the Albanian port city of Durres into Kosovo. And I think -- I visited -- we helicoptered into it and we watched them. They were about to go into a mountain to break the last link in terms of that long road. That will expand links for Kosovo to the sea. On May 31st, the Albanian Prime Minister Berisha and the Kosovo Prime Minister Thaci inaugurated a very key 5.6-kilometer tunnel along the route. And when the road is completed next year at a cost of 1.1 billion Euros, the drive of six hours to Kosovo's border from the Albanian capital of Tirana will take only two hours.

In the past, Kosovars have driven eight hours, often via Macedonia, to reach Albania's beaches.

So I think that things are happening there that will make Albania a leader, even an economic leader in the future because a road from Durres to Kukes, I just mentioned, will be a unifying point to all the Balkans, even the other countries that I mentioned before and even Serbia, I think, ultimately. It will bring the Balkans together and it is a good project.

There have been some criticisms, as you have here, of the way the project has been financed and done. But when I spoke to both parties, both parties told me, both political parties, that they think the road is a good idea. The Socialist Party has some questions over the way it is being financed or done, but the road itself was a good idea.

So let me say, Mr. Chairman, that I think the future for Albania is, indeed, bright. I would urge all of my colleagues and people in the audience to go and visit. You will find an outpouring of support for the United States, an outpouring of good feeling for the United States. And since I have traveled extensively -- and I know you have, Mr. Chairman -- it is almost unbelievable how everyone, both parties, feel towards Americans. It certainly gives me a very warm feeling. And I am very, very proud of the progress that Albania has made through the years. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

REP. HASTINGS: Thank you very much -- (inaudible, off mike). Now it is on. Thank you so very much. Congressman Aderholt wanted to respond very briefly. And again, I am going to ask the ambassador after Mr. Aderholt, if he would like to make very brief comments because we are holding our panel up. And I also want to tell you how our briefings work. We are going to get votes at about 11:15, and there are going to be a series of three votes. As a result of that, none of us are likely to come back. Three votes take about 45 minutes in this process, in addition to the fact that I have to preside in the chair beginning at noon.

But staff will be here. Many of them you have worked with. I would like for you to proceed apace. And then we will have, of course, the video and briefings from them in our report. So I don't mean at all to take lightly the extraordinariness of your taking your time to be here. But that is how the process has to work. Mr. Aderholt?

REP. ADERHOLT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow up with Congressman Engel and his comments about some of the progress that is going on in Albania. Like Eliot mentioned, I just returned from Albania. I was there last week. And the vibrance in the city that he mentioned is very evident when you are there in Tirana and, of course, in even other parts of the country.

But the highway that he mentioned is something really that I think that should be noted. The economic development that will spur out of that development of that highway, I think, is really -- cannot be estimated. As Congressman Engel mentioned, it is from Durres to Kosovo. I, too, like Congressman Engel, had an opportunity to travel and see it from a birds-eye view via helicopter. They are working 24 hours a day on that project. It is one of the major projects probably going on -- highway projects in Europe, if not the world.

And, of course, the prime minister is very proud of it -- had a chance to meet with him. But I also met with other members of the other parties as well, members of the parliament. I had a chance to meet with, I think, just about all the parties and had a chance to -- or at least a representative from all the parties and the members of parliament -- and get a chance just to talk and just get a chance to get a feel for what some of their thoughts and both sides of the aisle over there. And I say both sides -- all sides of the aisle because they have more political parties than we do -- made me feel very welcome. And it was really, like I said, Albania is a beautiful country.

I did discuss the voting card issue with the prime minister and questioned him on some of those issues. I think that his continuation of cracking down on corruption is very important. He must keep that up, as well as his education efforts. And he was -- the prime minister was telling me a lot about the education efforts that they are doing there in Albania to try to make sure they get computer technology to every student all across the country. And so I think that is, you know, certainly a wise move on the part of the government as well.

But again, I want to say how welcome I felt, Congressman Engel, when I was there as well. And like I said, not only from the party that is in power, but from all the parties there. And like I said, I think when we go there, it is important that we reach out to all the parties and to show them that the United States wants to work with them and encourage that new thriving democracy as it continues on. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.

REP. HASTINGS: Thank you very much. Ambassador and Eliot, do we have a floor mike? Oh, all right. Fine, sir. (Chuckles.) You mean to tell me Eliot can vote in Albania, no?

Q (Off mike.)

AMB. SALLABANDA: (Inaudible, off mike) -- members of the commission of the -- (inaudible) -- on behalf of the government of Albania, I would like to thank you very much for what you are doing in the interest of my country. Albania is a lucky country and very proud that in all processes of democratic developments has the assistance and support of USA.

The government of Albania is fully committed to all free and fair elections in line with the international standards of democratic elections. The government is also committed to guarantee a transparent election practice. To this end, the government has invited the international community, including the ODIHR and the parliamentarian -- (inaudible) -- of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and NATO to monitor these elections with the largest number of observers that have ever been seen to Albania.

With the view to address shortcomings that occurred in the previous elections, the ruling majority and the opposition work together very closely in order to amend the relevant provisions of the constitution and pass a new electoral code. As a result, the constitution of Albania has been amended by the parliament with a large consensus on -- (inaudible) -- 2008 establishing a regional proportional system with multi-names electoral zones in line with recommendations of the OSCE's ODIHR. The new electoral code entered into -- (inaudible) -- in mid-January 2009. In line with international standards and recommendations, the government has undertaken several measures to address previous technological shortcomings related to voters' lists and voters' identification.

The current voter registration system is the result of a step-by- step approach that has led to the establishment of the '09 system of national civil registry. Once the registry was established, efforts were focused in cleaning multiple records or the so-called duplications. This process concluded with the deletion of 50,000 duplications ensuring for the first time an electronic registry of citizens free of multiple records.

In addition to that, for the first time, voters' lists were generated from national civil registry and local government unit prepared the preliminary voter list based on this data. On the other hand, the national civil registry is the only official source that can offer this kind of information to the identity document system. And the applicants' data are taken directly through a safe online connection.

The new election code limits the valid documents for voter identification to passport and identity cards. On the basis of the minister of interior files on passport holders and national civil registry data, the government estimates that some 700,000 citizens do not hold a valid passport, and therefore, need an identity card in order to be able to vote. As of May 31st, the process of application and deliveries of ID is as follows.

These data are in the statement in the last page that you have in your table. The total number of operational working stations is 480, covering 100 percent of the whole country's territory. The total number of applications is 1,172,279. The number of IDs produced in the national personalized center is 1,045,910. The number of IDs distributed in the civil service offices is 1,019,956. The number of IDs collected by citizens is 652,067.

Out of approximately 700,000 citizens identifying as having no passport, 450,000 have already applied for the ID card. At least 150,000 out of 700,000 without passport do not reside in Albania anymore. During the last two months, the ID -- (inaudible) -- company has established around 500 application stations with daily capacity of 40,000 applications. However, the company is currently operating with only 35 percent of its total capacity. Translated into figures, this means that on a daily basis, only an average of 14,000 citizens come out to apply. Despite these figures, the company has not closed any application station.

The price of an ID card -- you see the ID, it is very sophisticated -- is cheaper than in any country around the globe in spite of the fact Albania is not ranked among the poorest countries in the world. In Albania, as in the United States of America and in other democratic countries, there is no legal obligation to participate in the elections. Hence, the possession of an ID is not a legal requirement.

There are 3.1 million voters registered for the elections of June 28. Elections turn-out figures of the last 12 years showed that only 1.4 million citizens have casted their vote in the Election Day. Therefore, the ID card problem for those who really want to vote does not exist. In closing my remarks, I would again like to emphasize that the government of Albania is fully committed to hold free and fair elections in line with international standards. Thank you.

REP. HASTINGS: Thank you very much, Ambassador. Mr. Elez Biberaj and you -- excuse me, if I got that wrong. People don't say Alcee right all the time either.

He today directs the Eurasian division of Voice of America, but previously led the Albanian service, which has done so much to ensure the people of Albania are aware of developments which concern them. This was particularly critical in the early days of the country's transition, a time filled with uncertainty. And Dr. Biberaj has written extensively about Albania and the Balkans over the years.

Our other panelist, John Rolett, is currently with the Washington office of the Open Society Institute, which assists civic activism in many countries around the world, including Albania. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rolett served in Albania as the representative of the National Democratic Institute.

And our final panelist is Robert Benjamin, who directs the Eastern and Central European programs at the National Democratic Institute today. His length of service at NDI and his responsibilities for so many European countries makes his assessment of Albania's progress regarding the conduct of elections a very critical one. Their curriculum vitae, I am sure, are available at the panel, but we will start with Dr. Biberaj.

MR. BIBERAJ: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I am very grateful for the opportunity that you and the commission have given me to participate today in this briefing. I would like to begin with a disclaimer. These are my private views, my personal views and not those of the Voice of America. Thank you.

On June 28th, Albania will hold its seventh multiparty parliamentary election since the demise of the communist regime almost 20 years ago. In view of Albania's truly profound political and economic transformations and the dramatic changes in regional dynamics favoring the Albanians. And by this, I mean Albania's membership in NATO, Tirana's submission of an application for European Union membership and the growing consolidation of Kosovo's independence.

The holding of orderly elections should seemingly be an easy and normal task. However, Albania's record of flawed elections and the often divisive and the confrontational nature of Albanian politics have left some observers to question Albania's ability to conduct credible elections in full conformity with international standards.

The upcoming elections are an important test of Albania's democratic maturity. As a member of NATO and as a potential candidate member of the European Union, Albania will and must be held to significantly higher standards than in the past. Failure to conduct elections in line with international standards will have a profound impact on Albania's political stability. It is likely to roll back the significant political and economic gains achieved in recent years. It would erode international support for Albania and the Albanians in Kosovo and in Macedonia and would delay indefinitely Albania's membership in the European Union.

The United States, a staunch supporter of Albania's democratization process and the driving force behind Albania's accession to NATO, has underscored the critical important that the upcoming elections will have for Albania's progress and integration into the European Union. The issue was raised by senior officials of President Obama's administration during Prime Minister Sali Berisha's meetings here in February with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. European Union, too, has on many occasions urged Albania's political forces to cooperate and to ensure that the upcoming elections are free and fair.

Government and opposition leaders seem, in my opinion, seem to recognize that there is a lot at stake and have pledged to conduct clean elections. Following Albania's membership in NATO in April 2009, Prime Minister Sali Berisha put his own prestige on the line by publicly stating that he will guarantee, quote, unquote, "that the elections will be free and fair." And Albania's main opposition leaders, the chairman of the Socialist Party, Edi Rama, and the chairman of the Socialist Movement for Integration, Ilir Meta, have said that they will do their part to ensure a transparent electoral process.

Since the end of communism, Albanian politics have been dominated by the country's two main political forces, the center-right Democratic Party led by Sali Berisha and the Socialist Party, the successor to the communist party of Albania. The two have alternated power and have largely governed in a partisan and non-transparent fashion. They have tended to view elections, unfortunately, in terms of a zero-sum game, often disregarding democratic norms, manipulating electoral procedures, intimidating the judiciary and the media and contesting unfavorable results.

The Democrats came to power in 1992 and instituted radical economic and political reforms. But by the mid-1990s, President Berisha, who had been considered as one of the most progressive democratic leaders in the Balkans, turned increasingly autocratic, imposing restrictions on basic political actions, introducing a restrictive media law and allowing pyramid schemes to flourish. The collapse of the pyramid schemes in '97 sparked an armed revolt leading to early elections and the Socialist Party's return to power.

During the next eight years, Albania experienced significant economic growth, adopted a new constitution and enacted important legal reforms. However, Socialist rule was characterized by political instability, infighting within the Socialist Party, lack of cooperation between the government and the opposition and a dramatic rise in corruption and organized crime activities. The ruling party was also consumed with the personal strife between the chairman of the party, Fatos Nano, and Ilir Meta, who eventually was forced to resign as prime minister under pressure from Nano.

In September 2004, Meta left the Socialist Party and formed his own party, the Social Movement for Integration. The split and the rising disenchantment of the Socialist rule resulted in the Socialist Party losing the parliamentary elections in 2005. Nano, who had led the Socialist Party since 1991, was forced to resign and he was replaced by the popular mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama.

The 2005 elections represented a remarkable comeback for Berisha who was held primarily responsible for Albania's implosion in 1997. Drawing lessons from the time that he was president, Berisha had formed a broad pre-election coalition. He welcomed back into the party former prominent officials that had left the party in the 1990s. And very significant, he invited about 40 young Western-educated experts from the civil society sector to draft the Democratic Party's electoral platform. Many of these young experts, members of a policy orientation committee, were subsequently appointed to important Cabinet positions.

Berisha laid out an aggressive agenda to deal with the economic crisis, to improve the business environment, to fight corruption and organized crime and to speed up Albania's integration into NATO and the European Union. The government has made significant progress in its efforts to create a stable political environment with functional democratic institutions. Albania experienced strong economic growth, averaging an annual real GDP growth of about 7 percent. Poverty and unemployment were reduced. Pensions and wages in the public sector were increased.

Between 2005 and 2008, poverty declined by one-third from 18.5 percent of the population to 12.4 percent. Albania also made great efforts to improve its business climate. The World Bank in 2009 ranked Albania 86th out of 191 countries. In 2008, Albania was ranked 135th. The global economic crisis, however, is having a significant impact on Albania. The crisis has led to a decline in exports and has limited Albania's access to external financing. In addition, remittances from Albania migrants abroad are likely to decline significantly. Albania's real GDP growth for this year has been revised down and is now forecasted to be at less than 2 percent.

The government also allows a huge public infrastructure program, the most important being the highway, which we heard about, the highway project linking Albania's port city of Durres with Kosovo. This is Albania's largest and most ambitious project since the demise of communism. It will boost the economic development of Northern Albania and will significantly increase cooperation with Kosovo. While the building of the road is deeply emotional for many Albanians on both sides of the border -- and Berisha, in fact, has used the road to boost his party's electoral chances -- it is not clear to me what impact it will have on Election Day.

The Socialists have criticized the high cost of the highway, estimated at more than $1.4 billion and have accused government officials of corruption and abuse of power. Prime Minister Lulzim Basha who was minister of transportation and public works when the public was launched was charged with abuse of power and breaking tender rules, however, the supreme court dismissed the charges on a series of technicalities.

Berisha came to power in 2005 with a promise to rule by clean hands insisting that rooting out corruption was fundamental to Albania's democratization. Throughout his four years as prime minister, he has maintained a strong anticorruption stance. Transparency International ranked Albania 85th in its 2008 corruption perception index out of 180 countries. There is no question that Berisha's campaign has advanced Albania's aspiration for Euro-Atlantic integration, but despite undeniable gains, corruption remains pervasive.

The government has also come under domestic and international criticism for failing to respect the independence of the judiciary and interfering with the investigations of a blast at an army ammunition camp in Gerdec in March 2009, which killed 26 persons. The tragedy occurred less than two months before Albania's membership into NATO. Defense minister and leader of the Republican Party and a close ally of Berisha, Fatmir Mediu was forced to resign. The incident devolved into partisan finger-pointing that the socialist accused in the government of arms smuggling and corruption.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the government was Albania's membership in NATO. Berisha turned Albania's achievement of the strategic objective as the most important event since Albania declared independence in 1912. Membership in the European Union is Albania's other major foreign policy objective. In 2006, Albania signed a stabilization and association agreement with the EU and last April submitted the application for full membership.

However, Albania's EU integration prospects will depend to a great degree on the conduct of the upcoming elections and the extent to which the new government, whichever party wins the elections, will be able to accelerate the pace of fundamental political, legal, and economic reforms. In its November 2008 report, the European Commission praised Albania for the significant progress it had made but stressed that further efforts had to be undertaken to fight corruption and to strengthen the judicial system.

The elections, as we heard from Ambassador Sallabanda will be held under a new law which was adopted in agreement between the two major parties last December. The law changes the electoral system from mixed to a regional proportional system. It gives more elitists almost unchallenged authority to select candidates. The code divides the country into 12 constituencies corresponding to Albania's 12 administrative regions. It establishes a 3 percent threshold for political parties and a 5 percent for pre-election coalitions. Smaller parties across the political spectrum led by the socialist movement for integration fiercely object to the new electoral code arguing that regional proportional system would favor the two largest parties. And in order to increase the electoral prospects, more parties have been forced to join one of the four coalitions. The elections will be contested by more than 30 political parties. Most of them have been grouped into four coalitions. I will not go into too many details, but the first coalition is Alliance for Change, headed by the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party's allies are in this coalition, the Republicans as well as the Liberal Democratic Union, and about a dozen of other small parties.

The Democratic Party's electoral platform highlights the government's achievement: strong economic growth, the strengthening of the rule of law, the struggle against corruption and organized crime and integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. In his campaign speeches, Prime Minister Berisha is asking Albanians to vote for the Democratic Party not only because of what the government has achieved but because of the promises for greater achievements and accomplishments in a second mandate.

The socialists have created the Union for Change Coalition. Their traditional allies, the Social Democratic Party led by the former speaker of the Albanian parliament, Skender Gjinushi; the Social Democratic Party led by former minister of foreign affairs, Paskal Milo; and some other smaller leftist parties. In addition, the Union for Change includes a new party, G-99 which emerged from the civil movement Majaft or Enough.

If I may, I'd like to spend a few minutes on the platform of the Socialist Party since I spoke about the achievements of the democratic government in the last few years.

REP. HASTINGS: Very few minutes.

MR. BIBERAJ: Edi Rama inherited a deeply divided party played by fierce infighting and badly tainted by the leader's corruption and ineptitude in tackling the country's problems. The elections are a test of credibility for him. If the socialists lose the elections, Rama will have to resign as the party statute stipulates. He faces stiff resistance from the old guard within the party, which has made it very difficult for him to renovate the party leadership and to appoint his own people in senior positions.

I'm going to skip a few paragraphs here. Another coalition is the Socialist Alliance for Integration, which groups the socialist movement for integration in some six fringe leftist parties led by -- the coalition is led by Illir Meta. Finally, the center-right Freedom Pole Coalition is made up of six rightwing parties, Aleksander Meksi, a former prime minister, leads the coalition, and this coalition is targeting the traditional Democratic Party electorate.

But the election will be a contest between the Democrats and the Socialists. Now, both parties claim to reflect competing strains of public opinion and to hold contrasting views of Albania's future. However, with the passage of time, their platforms have become largely indistinguishable and their approach to most issues is pragmatic and non-ideological. There has been a narrowing of the ideological gap, and there are no deep -- in my opinion -- no deep philosophical differences between them.

In recent years, the relationship between the two parties has evolved in significant ways, leading to unprecedented cooperation in pushing forward constitutional, electoral, and judicial reforms. Although there are no reliable polls, most observers believe the election will be very close. While it is difficult to speculate on the choices the electorate will make, Albania voters are likely to shun ideology in favor of pragmatism. The key issues are the economy, the fight against corruption, and which of the two major political parties is more likely to strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law and speed up the pace of reforms, and which parties is likely to best guide Albania towards eventual membership in the European Union.

Albania's political forces are now engaged in a fierce political campaign. The electoral process is face with some administrative shortcomings which need to be tackled before election day. The most contentious issue remains, the issue of new border identity cards that we heard about.

The political environment this time around in my opinion is less polarized than in the past. Militants across the political spectrum seem to have been marginalized. Thus far leading politicians have shown the remarkable civility in their campaigns, although the campaign has just started. They have avoided the fiery rhetoric that has characterized past elections. The media is playing a critical important role with this comprehensive and largely objective coverage of the campaign. Leading television stations are sponsoring almost daily debate with different candidates, and as never before, Albanian voters have a real opportunity to familiarize themselves with the electoral platforms of individual coalitions and parties.

The United States and the European Union have pursued a common strategy aimed at strengthening the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, and helping Albanians fight effectively corruption and organized crime. One of the most important external factors that has influenced the behavior of Albanian leaders has been the desire for integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. This policy priority has forced discipline on both the government and the opposition and has served as an important stimulus for political reforms.

The United States and the European Union have a stake in Albania holding free and fair elections and should hold firm in keeping Albania -- Albania politicians accountable. The United States in particular has great leverage and should not hesitate to use it to advance Albania's democratic reforms. The Albanians throughout the Balkans are on a resurgent path and this is due largely to U.S. support. It is highly unlikely that Kosovo would have been able to declare independence or Albania become an NATO member without Washington's backing.

Albania's strategic partnership with the U.S. would undoubtedly suffer in the event of serious problems with the elections or attempts by the government or the opposition to manipulate the election. While the international community can provide valuable assistance and support in the final analysis, it is really up to Albania's leading political forces to create a climate of trust within the body of politic and the political polarization that has impeded the country's development and develop a broader political and social consensus is deepening the much needed reforms.

For Albania to achieve these objectives, the country's major political forces and leaders will have to put aside their narrow interests and take responsibility for the tackling of the daunting challenges that Albania faces. Thank you very much.

REP. HASTINGS: All right. Well, we'll just go down the line, and I'll have Mr. Benjamin go next. You have the floor, sir.

MR. BENJAMIN: Mr. Chairman, distinguished representatives, ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to speak to you about Albania's parliamentary elections. NDI, my organization, has supported Albania's democratic transition through 1991 through political party development and broad-based civic involvement and grassroots advocacy and nonpartisan election. And with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, NDI is presently promoting women's participation in Albanian politics as part of an institutional initiative to foster women's political leadership worldwide.

Over the years, NDI has supported hundreds of Albanian political figure, civic activists, and government officials in Tirana and throughout the country as they create a participatory transparent and accountability political system. NDI's perspective in this election cycle -- or rather on this election cycle is shaped by our longstanding presence in Albania, the relationships that we enjoy across its political spectrum and in its nongovernmental sector and by our institutional experience in supporting democratic elections worldwide.

These elections in Albania's democratic transition overall must be considered in the context of comprehensive political, social, and economic change as the country transforms itself in the span of roughly one generation from communist isolation to an open democracy in market economy. Once rocky, Albania's road to democracy has smoothed considerably, which al Albanian's deserve credit. And now it's time to accelerate reform to secure the rule of law, to anchor government to the public interest, and at a fundamental level to enable more people to enter politics as elected officials, issue advocates, government watch dogs, and better-informed citizens so that power is more institutionalized and less personalized, properly diffused and not overly centralized.

These elections, as with those in the past are a moment to examine the transition, both where Albania has come from and where it needs to go. This time around Albania does have the potential to produce its strongest election to date, building on previous achievements, mitigating past problems, showcasing its democratic maturity, and providing momentum for accelerated reform.

At the same time, this election cycle may produce problems that stymie these advancements. It is not for us here to prejudge the outcome; it is to the Albanian people to determine if these elections deserve their confidence. No election is perfect of course, as we know in this country, but democracies young and old have the obligation to improve them. This election reveals a maturing political environment in which voters are increasingly experienced in exercising their franchise and demanding more from those who seek to represent them, from reducing corruption to building transport and energy infrastructure, to creating jobs and improving public education and health care. And to their credit, parties are doing a better job campaigning on constituent interests than in previous elections.

But at the same time, voters might be forgiven their penchant for cynicism. This campaign, like those in the past, suffers in certain quarters from an unpalatable level of polarizing and personal invective, which is not to be confused with legitimate criticism of one's appointments or vigorous defense of one's own positions. The disappointingly low level of discourse -- again, not everywhere, but in certain quarters -- is amplified by media that is comprehensive, as Elez has suggested, but often falls short on objective reporting, and that can deny many voters information that allows them to make well- informed choices.

Parties and their candidates would do well to focus on telling voters how after the elections they will back up their campaign pledges with concrete policies. And looking back at the 2005 parliamentary elections, parties must also assure the public that government resources are not misuse, or state employees unduly pressured, nor the votes of vulnerable groups purchased. The parties must comply with this most basic tenet of democratic conduct, upholding their individual right to free expression. Their commitment to do so must be expressed by their leaders and honored by all of those who represent parties contesting the elections.

The election system is more straightforward. The previous two- tiered system of single-member districts and national lists enable parties to pursue election strategies that wound up giving some parties more parliamentary seats than their actual support warranted, effectively distorting the constitutional principle of proportionality. And it has been replaced with a unified system of district-based proportional representation in which all members of parliament will represent geographic constituencies. And to make good on this change, we hope that parties of nominated candidates committed to constituent outreach, and we hope that parliament has the resources going forward to fund constituent outreach activity.

The new election provisions resulted from compromise between the two largest parties, a welcome improvement from the brinksmanship that attended previous election cycles. While the reform process was properly housed in parliament and all parties have formal participation, the two largest parties, as Elez has suggested, dominated the reform and agenda, and the outcome, particularly as concerns formal oversight and administrative responsibilities involving all major parties in the election bodies wherein they can defend their legitimate interests is important. Elections perhaps more than any other political exercise need to be as inclusive as possible.

Further to this point, there was little, if any, structured consultation with civil society actors through such mechanisms as public hearings that would have made the process more transparent and the outcome more accountable to citizens. The election reform process affirms Albania's continuing need to provide entry points into the legislative process through constituency outreach and public hearings.

Albania has progressed to the point where political stability should not be seen as wholly dependent on the two largest parties, but rather deepened and sustained by more democratic inclusion of other actors in and out of government. And with this in mind, happily, we expect to see some fresh faces emerges through this election. The number of women in parliament should grow significantly from the current level of 7 percent owing to the increasing presence of women in political life and a related new provision favoring their election by mandating that women comprise 30 percent of candidate lists. I'm proud to say that a multi-partisan group called the Women's Network championed this advancement with NDI support.

Most parties have complied with the letter, if not the spirit of this provision by placing most women candidates toward the bottom of their list with some notable exceptions. Younger people also are finding their way onto candidate lists, presaging the eventual arrival of a new generation of politicians unencumbered by the past and carrying new ideas likely to challenge political orthodoxy. We hope that women and youth are heard, particularly as the parties are campaigning on the slogan of change. More people from diverse backgrounds coming into politics are vital to democratic development as we have witnessed so spectacularly through our own presidential election last year.

The biggest challenge to these elections concerns voter identification. The new election law says that to be able to vote, eligible citizens must furnish a valid passport or the new biometric identity card developed along with a new national civil status register. Either document is more fraud proof than birth certificates, which had been relied on in previous elections to great consternation. There is an approximate voting population of 3.1 million people. Of this number, the government reports an estimated 700,000 people, or roughly 23 percent of eligible voters who do not possess valid passports. This means that they must obtain an ID card before June 28th to be able to vote.

The ID card application and distribution process began in January, and has been intensified in the past two months when it became clear that this sizeable number of eligible voters who do not hold valid passports were at risk of not being able to vote. The ID card procurement process was not initially established as a voter registration exercise. A citizen has to go to a local government office, verify his or her place on the national register, complete an application, including biometric information, and return a second time to pick up the card once it is processed and delivered. This has presented an unintentional unfortunate and undue burden for those citizens without valid passports seeking to exercise their right to vote, potentially -- and I underscore potentially depressing voter turnout and raising the specter of disenfranchisement again among those groups of voters not holding valid passports.

The government maintains that all eligible citizens intending to vote will be able to do so. And to lessen the burden, the government says that local application offices are open every day of the week and that card production is around the clock. The application fee initially set at 1200 lek, or roughly $13, a not insignificant amount for the average Albanian and prohibitively expensive for many has been replaced with a down payment scheme of 200 lek with a balance to be paid after the elections. Some in the opposition have called for free card distribution presumably to avoid the uncomfortable if, again, unintended consequence of some citizens having in effect to pay to vote.

As of May 31st, of the 700,000 voters in question, the government reports that some 450,000 have applied to receive their ID cards, although data on who among them has actually received the cards seems hard to come by, and that may be because statistics on card delivery cannot be disaggregated for non-passport holders.

Processing and delivering this many cards so close to the election present administrative burdens of a scope that provokes concern. Most Albanians in need of ID cards appear able to obtain them, although credible anecdotal evidence suggests that the process is slow in some parts of the country. There are allegations, though no apparent concrete evidence, of widespread partisan misuse of the cards.

In light of the above we offer the following several considerations having public confidence in the elections foremost in mind. Relevant authorities should take all necessary steps to reduce the burden for citizens to obtain ID cards for the purpose of voting, and to ensure that all citizens, regardless of location, presume political affiliation and other such factors are accorded equal opportunity and treatment.

Credible allegations of fraudulent activity concerning card distribution and/or other abuses of voter lists or voter identification should be immediately investigated by responsible authorities unencumbered by political pressure or administrative delay with the public duly informed in a timely manner. The Central Election Commission must ensure that voting center commissions, polling stations, are constituted and their members trained, particularly on voter registration and identification, so that citizens are properly informed of their voting status, and commissions can take appropriate steps should significant numbers of would-be voters not have required identification.

Political parties, particularly the two largest, should help the CEC by immediately confirming appointees to these commissions. With administrative challenges and apparently close elections in many districts, those responsible for ensuring security and operational integrity of polling and ballot counting sites must ensure order while not impeding those who wish to lodge complaints do so peacefully and according to protocol.

Officials should ensure unfettered access by domestic nonpartisan monitors to election proceedings, and in turn civic groups monitoring the election process must ensure that those who observe in their name do so on a strictly neutral basis, and that their findings properly reflect composite data and are backed by traceable information sources that do not raise concerns over undue partisan influence.

And finally the CEC and judicial authorities who rule on formal complaints meeting evidentiary and procedural criteria must do so on a timely basis and without political or partisan consideration. As has been noted by the other speakers, this election is crucial for Albania's EU aspirations and generally for its continued integration into Euro-Atlantic structures. Albania is working hard to meet international election standards as judged by outside observers; however, from the standpoint of Albania's democratic transition, the most important judge is the Albanian citizen. So as voters go to the polls on June 28th, we hope that there is among them a sense that the election process is worthy of their trust, and we applaud all those inside and outside of government, and there are many working to that end.

Thank you.

REP. ADERHOLT: Thank you for your testimony. Before we go into our next -- to Mr. Rolett, let me just say a vote has been called on in the House of Representatives and so Congressman Engel and I will have to be slipping out shortly. But I'm going to go ahead and call on Mr. Rolett, and if you could go ahead and start your testimony. And Mr. Bob Hand with OSCE will be here and will be taking over the hearings. So anyway, please continue; we look forward to your testimony, Mr. Rolett.

MR. ROLETT: Thank you. Let me ask, actually, or offer, to either shorten or not provide my statement. I'm conscious that time is of the essence, and often the question and answer is the more sort of lively and interesting peace. So I would be happy to have the statement into the record and proceed directly to the questions. Maybe you could hear a little bit of that before you have to depart. But I --

REP. ADERHOLT: I'll tell you what. Why don't you just go ahead and brief -- go ahead and make some opening remarks and then we'll -- and then you can submit your comments for the record.

MR. ROLETT: Okay, I will do that. Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to testify this morning. I want to underscore what both Congressman Engle and Congressman Aderholt noted about Albania's relationship to the United States. I will just quote briefly from a news article covering the 2007 visit of President Bush to Albania. It says, "So eager is the country to accommodate Mr. Bush that parliament unanimously approved a bill last month allowing American forces to engage in any kind of operation, including the use of force in order to provide security for the president." One newspaper, reporting on the effusive mood, published a headline that read, "Please occupy us." (Laughter.)

You know, what I think is interesting and relevant in this case is Albania is a small place, but it's one where U.S. influence can make a lot of difference, and therefore I'm particularly grateful that the commission has taken time today to take a look at the upcoming election.

I'm just going to talk about three different areas, but I think I'll shorten it two in the interest of time -- a little bit about civil society and about media. The other area I was asked to cover is corruption, but it doesn't necessarily relate directly to the elections and perhaps we can revisit in the question and answer if necessary.

Civil society, narrowly defined here as civic activism has been moderately successful in Albania. Nongovernmental organizations have improved the flow of information between government and citizens. They have raised the stakes for unethical or unlawful behavior by political actors, and they have provided avenues for citizen participation in public life. Within its certainly broad limits, civil society can restrain the worst impulses of the state, it can introduce alternative ideas and voices into the public debate, and it can mobilize constituencies around specific issues.

What civil society cannot do is guarantee the integrity of the democratic process. It can't make policy, or enforce law, or ensure the rights of individual citizens. At best it's an indirect and imperfect mechanism. Its activists are a reflection of the society in which they operate, and expectations should be in line with this reality. Compared to its neighbors in the Balkans, Albania has a relatively robust civic life. Over time, NGOs have become rather professional, able to reach policy alternatives and serve as civic watchdogs.

One measure of the effectiveness of NGOs is the degree to which they are targeted by politicians who don't like what they're saying. In Albania, the government recently applied pressure on NGOs, asserting the right to tax them and to set up a state account to fund them, which of course would undermine their independence. So far neither of these measures have been implemented and the government deserves credit for bringing NGOs into a discussion on how to proceed along these issues.

More problematic is the tendency of political actors to accuse civic organizations of partisanship, and the tendency of NGO leaders to drift in and out of political parties. As to the former, politicians who don't like what the nonprofit sector is saying invariably accuse it of serving the interests of their competitors. Although this is a self-serving argument, the critique is effective. People who work on issues in the public sphere walk around on eggshells worried that their statements or activities will land them on the front page of a party-affiliated newspaper.

On the other hand, NGOs, or more precisely NGO leaders, do sometimes undertake partisan projects. As we heard from Elez Biberaj, before the 2005 elections, a number of civil society personalities joined political parties including some who wound up in the current government. And this time around, you see several prominent activists running as candidates for opposition groups.

Let me just say a quick word on the media. Albania's media is vivid, it's pluralistic, it's un-transparent, and it's chaotic. A country of just over 3 million people is served by 69 private TV stations and close to 50 private radio outlets. Newsstands are crowded with as many as 200 tabloid-style newspapers covering a range of interests and political perspectives. If there's a problem with freedom of expression, it's that the media is a little too free with its reporting. Journalistic standards are lamentably low. As a rule, private media aligns itself with one or another of the political formations. This is not in and of itself a bad thing.

The public generally knows which entities support which parties, and European media often maintains political affiliations. On a positive side of the ledger, investigative journalism, some of it of good quality is on the rise. The media has played an important role in uncovering information related to the explosion of the illegal ammunition dump in Gerdec. It has also stunned some public officials. When one television program recorded a minister offering a woman a job in return for sexual favors, the minister was subsequently dismissed.

The main problem with Albanian media is its murky relationship to business and politics. In most cases, it's hard to determine who owns which media outlet. Media financing is also shrouded in mist. The presence of so many stations in such a small market is a red flag. There simply isn't enough ad revenue to sustain them all. And the other problem with media in Albania is the politicization of state television and radio. Rotechet, as it's known, is better described as a state agency than as public media. The OSCE in its interim report on the upcoming election cites, quote, "politically motivated appointments," while the State Department in its annual human rights reports notes pro-government coverage.

According to local media monitors, in March and April of this year, state television allocated almost half of its total news time to the government, and a further 20 percent of the Democratic Party and its allies. Most of the coverage was positive. The Socialist Party in the city of Tirana, controlled by the opposition, received about 21 percent of the coverage with the leader of the opposition presented in a clearly negative light.

Opposition party members have complained about government efforts to mute their access to the public. In one case, it's alleged that the government threatened television stations with the loss of their licenses for running an opposition ad that ran afoul of campaign restrictions. In another, the state bulldozed billboards carrying the message of an opposition party because it maintained they were too close to the road. Other billboards with similar position but carrying nonpolitical messages were left alone. Such acts by the state threaten opposition access to the media.

While such irregularities are common to the region, and I hasten to add, that similar problems arose when the current opposition was in power, they are toxic to the exercise of the democratic franchise. Albania's inclusion in NATO and aspirations to join the European Union should require a higher standard of electoral behavior.

And I think I will probably close, just reiterating what both Elez and Rob said, that now that Albania is a NATO member and is closer as an official candidate for the European Union, we really think that the standards need to be higher this time around. Thank you.

MR. HAND: Okay, thank you very much, Jonas, for your statement. One of the benefits of having this in a briefing format is that as members of Congress need to go and vote, it can be turned over to the staff to chair, which is quite an honor for somebody in the staff to be able to do. But it also offers the opportunity for questions to come not just from the dais but from the audience.

I have a couple questions I may want to ask myself, but I think what I will first do is ask whether there's anybody in the audience who would like to ask a question. If somebody would, if they could please come up to the podium and introduce yourself, your affiliation to whom you want to address your question. You can do it to the entire panel or to one of the individual panelists. And then the short question -- please, no long comments or anything like that, but a short so we can get as many of them in as possible.

So if there's somebody who would like to come up and ask a question, we'll start with you. Thank you.

Q Hi. I'm Nancy Donaldson. I have a general question, which is if the panelists could address what observers and the public should most be watching closely as we run up to the election and right after the election to get a sense of the true transparency and whether it's a free and fair election knowing what you do about Albania? Thank you.

MR. HAND: Who would like to go first?

MR. BENJAMIN: Well, thanks. Thanks for the question. There are a number of critical areas I think that we've touched based on -- in our respective statements. Clearly the administrative challenges of ensuring that people have -- you get an undue burden in terms of securing the right to vote by having access to proper identification as mandated by law. I think that is the critical, critical point among several in the pre-election period. Monitoring the media during what is now the official campaign phase that media, both state and private, acquit themselves according to the law both in terms of formal quantitative airtime and space accorded to political parties, as well as the tone of their media coverage.

As Jonas was saying, it's -- I think in Albania it's understood, more or less, the political allegiances that many media outlets have, but I think it's incumbent upon them to specify what is new and what is editorial, particularly the latter in their publications and in their broadcast statements. I think that the parties and their candidates must oblige a code of conduct that is seen to be democratic, that is seen to follow the election law provisions. And I think that the ability of the polling station commissions and the ballot counting commissions, keeping in mind that those are two separate exercises and two separate locales, must be staffed with people who are political party representatives appointed by the parties and able to know, apply, interpret the law as people come to vote and as ballots are counted.

Finally in the post-election period, Albania, as with many other countries in the region, faces -- or has typically faced an extended period of dispute and complaints, and that -- arbitrating that process itself generates a lot of controversy. And so again it falls to the CEC and the relevant courts to make sure that what they do in arbitrating those disputes, particularly if there are close races, that those disputes are properly adjudicated, again, according to the law, and done so with the transparency required to make the process seem to be an understood as democratic. Transparency is critical.

MR. HAND: Jonas or Elez, would you like to comment as well?

MR. ROLETT: I would like to say a word about the ID cards because I think they're sort of included in the question. First of all I want to say that there are lots of countries in Europe that have ID cards. In and of themselves they are not controversial; they are used for lots of purposes, not just for voting. And if we weren't having an election coming up so soon, I don't think there would be an issue at all.

I also think that the government deserves some credit for finding ways to make them more available to people who might otherwise have had trouble getting them, issuing them free to certain categories of people, reducing the cost, at least up front to ensure that the immediate cost is not a barrier, and I think making a pretty credible effort to sign people up. It's a complicated issue. There are some people, as I understand it, who would rather not have an ID card because it will put them on the tax rolls. So it's not entirely up to the government to get people to sign up; it's a two-way street.

Having said that, because it is such a sensitive moment with the election coming up, I think it's incumbent on the government to go above and beyond the legal minimums. And here I think there's something to critique, and here I think there's something to take a look at in terms of how the government is managing the process in the run-up to the elections. There are lots and lots of numbers floating around, and it's confusing because there's the total number of people who have applied for ID cards. There's a subset of that who are people who don't have a passport and therefore need them in order to vote. There are different numbers for people who have applied versus the cards that have been processed, versus those who have been delivered to the local distribution centers, and then to those who have them in hand already.

We tried -- the Open Society Foundation in Albania was interested in doing an ID card watch project, which would try to verify the numbers that were being submitted, or published, let's say, by the government. The numbers that we get from the government are aggregated; they are total numbers. And in order to check whether or not they are accurate, we have to have disaggregated information. So if we want to know if there are problems with distributing the ID cards in a rural zone in Lezhe, let's say, we can travel locally and talk to the municipal officials and find out what those numbers are, but we cannot compare those figures to what the government has because the government figures are totals instead.

I understand that the opposition has also asked for disaggregated information, although their motives are different. They're concerned that it's their supporters in certain zones who are not getting cards because of administrative barriers or for other reasons. So I think one thing that would be quite indicative of the government's willingness to go that extra mile would be for them to release this disaggregated information.

MR. HAND: Elez?

MR. BIBERAJ: Just briefly, what I'm concerned about on this issue is the lack of cooperation between the government and the opposition. In fact, from the opposition, it is mainly the Socialist Party, which has raised this as a critical issue, but the way they're communicating through their -- they are all -- (inaudible) -- they are communicating through letters, perhaps the best way to tackle or to attempt to tackle this issue would be for senior government officials to sit down with opposition leaders and see perhaps the opposition has some ideas which the government has not thus far considered.

MR. HAND: Okay. Another question from the audience? Well, maybe I'll ask one question to give people some time in case somebody is thinking of one. I was just wondering a little bit more specifically with the election and the campaign period. I know that it's really just started, so there may not be too much to say right at this point. But how much has the incident at Gerdec and other reports of corruption and problems, have they reverberated politically that it's a campaign issue, that it's something that the voters want to see, the candidates or the political parties address? And given, I think as some of you have said that there have been corruption problems over the years with various political parties in power, does anybody have any real credibility in this election campaign period to run on an anticorruption campaign? And I'd address that to whoever would like to address it. Elez?

MR. BIBERAJ: I think there's a serious deficit of credibility on all sides on the corruption issue. Gerdec is a huge issue for the opposition, but I'm not really sure how much a salient issue this is with the voters out there, but both camps are playing up the corruption issue. Rama, for example, himself, has made this a centerpiece of his platform and so has Meta, but in both cases the democratic response is that, especially in the case of Meta when he was prime minister of Albania, that is the period when corruption really got almost totally out of hand in Albania. And Rama, although he in recent years he has been -- he's known as the most popular politician in Albania, but he has had to deal with allegations of corruption in the city hall as well.

MR. HAND: Okay, go ahead.

MR. BENJAMIN: I think it's generally accepted that the government has made important efforts to step corrupt practice, and I think that there is a reservoir of support for the general prosecutor herself, who is on a measure of independence from the government in doing so.

I think this election campaign -- I ascertain but I don't know that people want to -- are not necessarily as focused on Gerdec or other major corruption issues as they are about their own livelihoods and what political parties can do and focus on in terms of concrete public policy to improve the lives of individuals or families in their communities. That's what people want to talk about. I say ascertain and I don't know because there hasn't been a substantial effort of public opinion research in Albania of a kind that is made public itself so that people, parties, everyone can understand more statistically, more critically what the public thinks and what its priorities are.

I was happy in the 2005 election cycle that NDI was able to initiate what was in effect the first political public opinion research, and we had hoped to do similar work this election cycle, but were not able to attract funding to that end. I mention that because I think it's very important that when you deal with issues as politically sensitive as corruption, you try to do so from a demand- driven perspective, and you try to understand critically and statistically how people, citizens view these issues, and we really don't have a clear picture of that.

MR. HAND: Okay. Any questions? I'm getting to ask them all. I think actually if nobody has an additional question to ask, I'll conclude the briefing. I don't know if any of you would like to make any concluding remarks or if you feel you've covered everything? Okay, if so, I think I'd like to sort of conclude with the comment, early on it was said by I think Mr. Engel in particular about how pro- American the people of Albania are. I'm going to say a few words about the reciprocity. It's almost impossible to go to Albania without feeling a deep sympathy for that country and its people and without coming back with the deep, deep desire to want to see that country succeed. The people there are wonderful, and it's always a great place -- great place to visit.

We had this briefing with exactly that in mind. Albania is a friend. It is now a NATO ally of the United States, but we want to see it to continue to move forward. We want to see reform to continue and for there to be good elections there in June 28th. We want to see the country succeed. Regardless of which political party wins, we want the voters to be able to vote and to have a sense that they have a control of their future and of their country. And hopefully by highlighting some of the issues relating to this election, we have helped forward that process, that when we come to June 28th we will see a good process and we'll see Albania move forward and succeed in its transition.

I want to thank all three of the panelists who are here for their presentations. I don't think that there is a group in Washington that knows more about Albania than the three of you, particularly Elez Biberaj who goes way back well. Well, I never say I'm an expert on Albania. I go way, way back, but I'm never an expert but I know how to rely on the experts, and I've relied on you, Elez for many, many years, but also on you, Jonas, and you, Rob, for your expertise, and not only on Albania but on many other countries as well. And I thank you for participating today.

And I want to thank the audience also for coming here and attending this briefing, and hopefully we'll see you again in a future briefing, whether it's on Albania or another issue of concern to the Helsinki Commission. Thank you.

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