Albania hunger strikers

More than 3,000 people protested in front of Albania’s parliament Monday, in support of 10 lawmakers on hunger strike in opposition to a draft election law.

The deputies have been on a weeklong hunger strike since last Monday to protest the election law changes which they say will keep small parties out of parliament.

Protesters at the rally chanted “This won’t pass” as they waved Albanian flags and held up protest banners.

The rally ended peacefully. Protest organizers called on the crowd to repeat the rallies in front of parliament every day.

“No one will force them stop their hunger strike and their defense of our right of the vote,” said Ilir Meta of the opposition party, Socialist Movement for Integration.

The hunger strikers remain in parliament. Supporters said they are becoming frail and expressed concern for one elderly lawmaker who suffers from diabetes.

Albania was invited to join NATO earlier this year and is keen to press ahead with voting reforms that are seen as necessary to further integration with the European Union.

But Albanians are also highly sensitive to changes in voting rules after enduring decades of oppressive Communist rule.

Small parties argue the proposed changes would exclude them from parliament by introducing a region-based voting system.

Several of the hunger strikers are members of a small Christian Democrat party that is in Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s governing conservative coalition.

Albania elects its deputies to the 140-seat parliament using a partial majority system. General elections are due next year.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors democratic reforms in many former Communist countries, expressed mixed views over the proposed voting changes.

The OSCE in the past has criticized Albania for failing to hold elections that meet international standards. It said the new law requires “fine tuning.

source:emportal.co.yu

Albania passes the new election law

Albania’s two main parties passed an election code that they said would ensure the holding of free and fair elections next year, but minor parties complained it would work against them.

Deputies of the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition Socialists cast 112 votes for the measure in the 140-seat parliament where 10 opposition politicians had staged an eight-day hunger strike to prevent its passage.

The European Union has made it clear to ex-communist Albania, which has yet to hold elections that meet international standards, that next year’s vote must be above criticism if it wants to join the 27-member bloc.

“This code will be remembered not only because it will ensure free and fair elections, but as a great example of political cooperation,” said Ilir Rusmali, a Democrat who was co-chairman of the commission that drafted the code.

The Democrats and Socialists said they had written a code based on the best European models without foreign tutorship well ahead of the election, a milestone for Albania’s 17-year-old democracy.

But minor parties believe the new regional system of proportional representation will greatly reduce their number of seats at next year’s general election.

After the law passed, Ilir Meta, one of the hunger strikers, warned of escalating the protest to restore the “sanctity of the vote”.

“This is a crime against the constitution and democracy,” Meta, unshaven and looking tired, told a crowd of protesters who chanted “Shame” outside the parliament building.

“You are approving the code of theft and are undermining the 2009 elections,” Nard Ndoka, a former ally of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, told parliament before ending his hunger strike.

In a rare show of consensus in April, the two main parties agreed to change an electoral system tainted by allegations of fraud.

Democrats and Socialists alike had been accused of fraud and exaggerated use of tactical voting under the previous system, usually aimed at boosting the seats of their small-party allies so they ended up with more powerful coalitions.

But the practice often backfired and led to instability, as small parties bargained for favours and slowed the pace of reforms, or switched allegiances in return for official posts.

“This code … can erase from memory the dark stories of vote trafficking that produced weak governments, which could be easily blackmailed,” Socialist deputy Fatmir Xhafaj said.

source:tvnz.co.nz

Albania Study Tour

SNV/Albania Study Tour

SNV/Albania Study Tour

Peshkopi Municipality:

Tax Office, Public Information Office and Advisory Commission

Background

SNV/Albania, Diber Team has a contract with the Municipality of Peshkopi to provide a number of advisory services. Specifically, two advisory service objectives were drivers for this study tour: 1) establishing citizen advisory commissions on a neighborhood level; and 2) improvement of tax management system: collection, transparency and communication with citizens. Within these objectives a number of specific activities were planned; but in neither case, was a study tour initially incorporated into the activity work plan. As implementation of the work plans have occurred, adjustments have been made based on new opportunities and new insights gained from implementing a prior activity.

In this case, as the tax management objective/project was being implemented, we hired a consultant to assist on the technical and legal specifics of tax forecasting, collections, management and monitoring, enforcement, etc. Two interesting developments emerged from this activity. First, the consultant(s) were a team of experts. One from a municipality with very practical knowledge and experience.¹ The other is an attorney from the Albanian Association of Municipalities, a national capacity building and lobbying organization for local municipalities. We found that by working together with this specific client (i.e.: Municipality of Peshkopi) that we could likely develop complimentary² and replicable advisory services, for other municipality tax offices throughout Albania.

The second development was that in Kucove, the municipality of one of our consultants, there is a very active Advisory Commission. This Commission has been involved in providing input on their taxes and budget. The consultant invited the Peshkopi tax office staff to come and see his operations in Kucove in more detail; and, he invited us to bring advisory commissioners along and he would ensure that they met some Kucove commissioners too. This second development is where the study tour idea began.

Another development arose independent of the above, from the networking that was taking place within AAM and the motivation of the Mayors of Peshkopi and Saranda. The Mayor of the Municipality of Saranda, invited the Peshkopi tour group to come and be guests in his town and to share with his staff our experiences with the Advisory Commission. (Saranda does not have a citizen advisory group.) In exchange, he and his staff would share their experiences/successes with tourism, a development area that Peshkopi wants to grow. t

¹ This expert, the Tax Director from the Municipality of Kucove, is “heads above” all others in Albania. He is used by the U.S. Urban Institute as a consultant. Through his leadership and management, his office has increased tax revenue in Kucove by five times in approximately four years.

² Complimentary service: SNV advisors attend to process issues and community transparency. We also initiate the work based on demand and need known fromour local government networks and we can provide on-going support/advice in areas tha we have teams. The AAM provides the legal expertise and training. They also partner with us in terms of LGt networking. Finally, the Kucove expert offers the hands-on knowledge and various technical mechanisms to make tax office/administrative improvements.

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We confirmed the goals of the study tour with our client and agreements were made about sharing financial and logistical responsibilities of the tour. The goals were as follows:

1. To learn about how the municipality of Saranda developed a tourism office and how they are making progress.

2. To learn from the experiences of the Kucove municipality regarding taxes, tax systems, and how they made the changes. And, how the advisory commission participates.

3. To observe and learn about specific tax system administrative mechanisms, including software, forms and files.

4. To share and learn from the experiences of both municipalities (Peshkopi and Kucove) about the value and functioning of citizen advisory commissions.

General Description

The tour included two female advisors from SNV, the mayor of Peshkopi, Director of the Public Information Office, Director and Inspector of the Tax Office; and, 7 members of the Advisory Commission(s).³ Except for SNV advisors, all participants were male. One female commissioner declined the day before. We traveled in one mini-bus and the municipality car, with two drivers.

The trip started at 4 a.m. from Peshkopi and began fairly uneventfully, making good time toward our first destination in Saranda. Just after the national park in Llogara, complete with photo opportunities with the tame deer/fauna, the mini-bus broke down. From this point on, we were continually behind on our schedule, about a half a day.

In Saranda, there was a dinner (hosted by the Saranda mayor & staff) and staff briefings from their mayor, Tax Director and Tourism Director. The location of the formal briefings were changed to the informal dinner setting, due to our delays and a power outage in Saranda just as we arrived at the Bashki. Much of the learning happened through dialogues and conversations around the table. Saranda had an equal number of staff participating in the dinner as we brought along and each sat directly across the table from one of us (even the English speaker, was across the table for Fuji.)

The following day, we toured the archeological site at Butrint and stopped briefly at the castle. The night before, at the dinner, the Mayor of Saranda was fairly insistent that we “take in” at least one of their tourist attractions before leaving. The group chose Butrint, which was not difficult since the Mayor arranged a private tour guide for us. Consequently, we missed our 3:00 meeting in Kucove that day but easily re-scheduled it for 8 a.m. the following morning.

In Kucove, we were greeted by the Deputy Mayor, the entire staff of the tax office and the Chairman of their Advisory Commission. Over coffee, we learned about the progress in Kucove over the past few years, including the changes in the tax system and the market. Back at the Bashki, the Mayor joined us and we moved to the City Council Chambers for our meeting. The meeting with the mayor focused on the Advisory Commissions, their role and value to democratic processes, and transparency.

After the meeting, we split up: the mayors met together, the tax office folks went to the tax office, and the others toured Kucove and went to the market. We all met at the market about an hour later. Here we got a tour and description of the changes there and spent time in the satellite tax office at the market.

³ At this point, there are 10 neighborhood advisory commissions. Each has about 3 leaders (chair, vice and secretary-although not formally). Together, they make up about 30 members for the city-wide “advisory commission.” However, a city-wide structure has not been formally recommended or adopted.

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Photos were taken and gratitude exchanged (as occurred in Saranda too) and the trip rolled-on to Peshkopi, dropping off the SNV advisors in Fier. We needed to attend an SNV meeting.

Highlights of the Trip

Overall, the goals of the study tour were met. And where we may have fell short in terms of the time lost in actual meetings (particularly, in Kucova), was made up by other experiences, learnings, and professional growth!

Highlights from Saranda included:

􀂃 The professionalism of the municipality staff. The Peshkopi folks were very impressed by this and are still talking about it. We believe that they were role models for how people in public service can perform. Their pride in their community and their knowledge of their topics shined through in all of their conversations-they were great “ambassadors” for their community.

􀂃 The gender balance/statistics in Saranda municipality were also impressive. 45% of the staff are women, including the Chief of Staff, Director of the Tax Office and Director of the Tourism Office. The City Council is represented by 33% women and the Secretary of the Council is a woman.

􀂃 Peshkopi participants, particularly the advisory commissioners, were very honored by the Saranda mayor and staff. This increased their confidence and pride. Throughout the conversations, they listened to Saranda staff speculating and conceptualizing how to use an advisory group for their work in Saranda. (In the past, they have used experts in particular fields in ad hoc committees for advice.) We found this dynamic very interesting because it seemed that our Peshkopi commissioners were actually increasing their own understanding about their role, as Saranda folks speculated.

Highlights from Kucove:

􀂃 Here, our group heard very specific stories about citizen advisory commissions and they received advice. In many ways it was good that they already had their role “built up” in Saranda, because they engaged in rich dialogue with the mayor, deputy mayor and chairman of the Kucove Advisory Commission. They heard stories of how the Kucove commission evolved and matured over time, which is good ‘realistic-grounding’ for our members.

o They learned how they can and should gather input from citizens and give input to the municipality (both administration and council) on topics such as taxes and the budget.

o They were told that they need to go to the city council meetings and listen and learn or they will never start making an impact there. And that their role could and should evolve into being of value to the entire municipality and not just the mayor and his staff.

o They heard the mayor say that he listens to his commission and almost always does what they say-but not 100% of the time. However, he said that he knows that he cannot go against their opinions too often or he would be out of a job. Our members were impressed to hear such things.

o They discussed difficult things too, such as how to handle conflict within the community. Specific to Peshkopi’s current conflict, the mayor advised them to “make the issue more public.” He encouraged them to speak up and speak out about difficult topics and issues and to not shy away from conflicts. It was their role to ask the tough questions and demand transparency.

􀂃 The City Council Chambers/meeting room included chairs for the public (accommodating about a 30 person audience.) This generated a number of comments and ideas from our group.

􀂃 An unexpected highlight, for everyone, was the public market. They have a satellite tax office inside the market so the vendors can pay their tax conveniently and the inspectors can

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directly track/monitor as well. They showed us their impressive data related to tax collection and compliance, since they moved into the market.

􀂃 The market itself was also a source of pride for Kucove, and it gave a long-range vision to the tour group. It was clean, secure (locks for individual merchants well as the whole market,) and organized and consolidated in one location.

Overall:

􀂃 A major indictor of change and success, in our opinion, were two “speeches” from one of the more skeptical and extreme advisory commissioners. In Saranda, he “announced” to the entire group at the end of the dinner, that he was not of the same party as the mayor; but from what he heard so far, he was agreeable to keeping an open mind and he would try to understand what the mayor was trying to accomplish. At the end of the meeting in Kucova, he promised to the whole group, that when he returned to Peshkopi, that he would talk to his fellow opposition party members and try and get them to understand and support the establishment of the advisory commissions.

􀂃 On the return trip, the advisory commission concluded that it might be helpful if they added some members with some specific expertise. This could help with the quality of their advice and increase their overall knowledge. They discussed/are aware that there are many ways they could structure themselves in the future. Any new experts could be part of them (as members), or an appointed and specialized group(s) as needed. The mayor has given them the “freedom to choose,” (as this is still a mayor-initiated pilot). They decided to try and recruit new and motivated members and not to form “expert-only” types of groups because they believe that they have something very unique/important in the way they are organized as “average citizens from the neighborhoods.”

􀂃 In terms of taxes and tax management, there are so many things that could be implemented similar to Kucove. Any one of them would be an improvement. Our fear is that the changes needed are quite large and that Peshkopi’s tax office staff might try to do all of them and become overwhelmed. This is where our on-going coaching and advice is needed. Our continued workplan for “tax management improvement,” includes technical assistance for the tax office and also the community participation piece. With the latter piece, we will likely braid it with the advisory commission’s development, assuming that the advisory commission development remains on our long-term contract with the Peshkopi Municipality.

􀂃 We need to anticipate that tourism and economic development initiatives on the part of this client are “just around the corner.” The mayor was very excited about Saranda’s accomplishments and the advisory commissioners got a glimpse of what tourism can do for an area. We have opportunities to approach this in a manner that involves actors from all sectors. We need to capitalize on this opportunity because the community lacks experience in working together.

Recommendations for Future Tours:

􀂃 Do It! If you think that it might not be worth the effort, think again. Peer to peer exchange of information and knowledge is one of the best ways that humans learn. Also, the “unexpected” can occur and it may springboard the group toward their next/future goals. Finally, you don’t have to travel too far from home to learn from experiential stories and gain new ideas.

􀂃 Before the trip, have a “preparation meeting.” Review the learning objectives, discuss what you may see and hear, brainstorm some key questions, and recommend that participants consult others who may not be going on the trip to generate more specific questions.

􀂃 At the preparatory meeting, assign each participant a “job.” For example, to take notes; to summarize what they heard/saw (maybe during the bus ride between stops); to prepare for the next stop by reminding folks about who they will see, the questions they generated, how much time they have, etc.(the agenda keeper); to write a report afterwards; to give a

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verbal report upon returning; or others. Or similarly, assign each person a meeting or part of the trip/tour to document (take the notes for the group). This is an example from another SNV study tour.

􀂃 Schedule a “return meeting” before leaving on the trip. This meeting can be somewhat social, maybe with picture sharing, etc. But, the main objective is to reflect and discuss learnings; to document the learnings; and to make decisions about what to do next. Next steps could include: preparing a more formal report to a larger audience; generating specific recommendations to another entity; taking actual action steps; or other. Since we did not have one of these scheduled, we are having many delays in trying to schedule one.

􀂃 Stay with the group all the way home. Of course you cannot always have the ideal calendar or schedule. But, another 7 hours together in a vehicle would have allowed more time to debrief the observations, reflect and process the learnings. This opportunity was missed by the SNV advisors; however, we trust/heard that some of this did occur.

􀂃 Anticipate that things take longer in a large group. Regardless of the breakdowns during our trip, everything (e.g.: lunch break) seems to take longer.

source:portal.snvworld.org

Albanian building collapse

The first victim, a 65-year-old woman was pulled out on Monday morning.

According to the Ministry of Interior, a woman and her 12-year-old daughter are still believed to be under the debris.

Emergency crews, firefighters and police launched a rescue mission after an apartment building where 30 families lived collapsed on Sunday.
So far four people have been taken to the local hospital.

“There is still hope that someone will be found alive,” said Alfred Olli, Albania’s head of Civil Emergencies Agency.

According to the Ministry of Interior, construction work on a new building at the base of the hill – where the apartment block is located – may have caused the collapse. The owners of the construction firm have been placed under arrest.

Speaking at the scene after arriving from Tirana, Prime Minister Sali Berisha asked for a thorough investigation.

“Those responsible should be brought to justice,” said Berisha, adding that for now the authorities were concentrating on the rescue operation.

Real estate has been booming in Albania for a decade. Price increases were fuelled by strong domestic demand, availability of mortgage loans, fast-flowing remittances from family members working abroad and a strong migratory trend from rural to urban areas.

Nowhere domestically has the economic buoyancy yielded greater change than in the property market, with the construction industry accounting for 47 per cent of overall economic activity in 2006.

However, the fast pace of growth, coupled with weak state institutions and corruption, has reduced oversight on constriction sites.

The local office of the watchdog group Transparency International stated on Sunday that the incident was the result of lack of regulations and weak enforcement of existing rules in the construction industry because of corruption.

The local media reported that the inhabitants of the collapsed building had continually complained about the construction and had even had filed a suit against the developers of the new building.

Morning shows in TV stations were filled with calls from people reporting similar situations.

Original article on Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/14651/

Three killed in Albania’s apartment building collapse

TIRANA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) — Three people were killed in Sunday’s apartment building collapse in a southern Albanian city, local media reported on Monday.

Rescue workers on Monday dug out three bodies from the rubble of the collapsed building in Gjirokastra, 225 kilometers south of the capital city of Tirana.

The victims are a 65-year-old woman, a little girl aged 13 and her 38-year-old mother, Albania’s TV network News 24 said.

The five-story building partially collapsed on Sunday morning. More than 20 people have also been injured in the collapse.

It was believed that the collapse have been caused by construction work on an adjacent apartment building. The chief of Gjirokastra’s city planning office and four people from the construction company have been detained in the case, police said.

source:news.xinhuanet.com