Keeping up with Election Campaigns in the Digital Age: Prospects for Greater Regulation and Transparency in Albania

Democracies across the world – from established to emerging – are facing a new challenge in the rise of online campaigning, and the way in which political actors increasingly spend money in this space. Online campaigning often operates in a space where rules are unclear, malign actors thrive, and regulators struggle to keep up with the rapidly changing digital landscape. 

Over the years, Albania has made some modest progress in the area of political party and campaign finance regulation, primarily thanks to the assistance of international partners and local organizations. The fast pace of developments in the digital world however places it in front of challenges that are no different to those being grasped across the rest of democratic world, notably: difficulty with adapting legislation at the same pace of developments in online campaigning, limited resources and capacities of oversight agencies to effectively enforce existing regulation.  

As a result, there are numerous ways in which pre-existing electoral regulations are not adhered to in elections inclusive of: non-adherence to specific periods of silence, active third-party campaigning and expenditure during elections, misreporting of social media expenditure at elections.

To analyse the above-mentioned challenges through in-depth research into the specific problems that Albania faces and how well existing legislation fares, International IDEA and Rule of Law Centre of Finland have developed the study “Keeping Up with Election Campaigns in The Digital Age: Prospects for Greater Regulation and Transparency in Albania”. 

In partnership with Central Election Commission (CEC), the preliminary findings of the study will be shared in a roundtable with election stakeholders and further discussions will be held as a collaborative effort to contribute to recommendations for reforming the regulatory framework in Albania on Online Campaign Finance. 

Simultaneous interpretation from and into English with be provided. 

This is event is organized in the framework of the project “Integrity and Trust in Albanian Elections: Fostering Political Finance Transparency and the Safe Use of Information and Communication Technologies”, co-implemented by International IDEA and the Rule of Law Centre of Finland.