POP 2019 - Përballja e Ofertave Politike – Juxtaposing Political Offers

Duration: 1 January 2019 - 31. December 2019

Donor: Olof Palme International Centre

Overall objective: Increase public debate and citizen information about party policy and competitive coalition platforms during local elections 2019.

Specific objectives:

• POP 2019 aims to bring dialogue between constituents and candidates, but also between candidates themselves. POP 2019 will serve as a platform for discussion, whereby candidates will be held accountable to their promises and will be invited to sign the social contract between them and the citizens in a town hall format forum.
• Through the tools of legal advocacy/lobbying the network will strive to achieve results, ensuring that the pacts are not merely a written pledge, but an actionable engagement for future elected mayors.
• POP 2019 will aim to keep an informed and enlightened citizenry by using online technology as a tool to provide information to the public on the promises and priorities made and the work to fulfil them.
• POP 2019 will aim to increase both transparency and accountability of candidates for elected officials. Frequent studies have shown that Albanian citizens feel that politicians are only interested in their own wellbeing and interests and care about them only during election periods.

Summary: The activities of POP 2019 were designed based on the specific objectives of the project and will be distributed in three main phases:

First Phase: January –April, 2019

• Establish the coordination team and the Steering Committee.
• Develop the methodology and the plan of activities.
• Monitor the changes in the Electoral Code related to the Local elections.
• Organize the forums with citizens, 4 (four) in each municipality (36 forums with citizens in total).
• Develop the policy papers for each municipality (8 policy papers).
• Organize meeting with key persons from the political parties and presents the policy briefs (between 10 – 15 meetings).
• Develop online platform and social media dedicated to POP 2019.
• Organize local TV broadcasting programmes on priorities of the citizens in each municipality (at least 8 TV broadcasting).

Second phase: May – July 2019

• Develop 8 documents called – PACT- from the policy papers (8 PACTS).
• Organize 8 public forums with candidates for mayors in each municipality. Invite them to sign the social pact by including the citizen’s priorities in their programmes.
• Monitor the election campaign the candidates are developing.
• Monitor the E-Day activities of the candidates and their councillors.
• Produce reports form each municipalities on the results from the above activities.

Third phase: July – December 2019

• Monitoring the implementation of the pact from the elected mayors and the city council.
• Participate in the city council meetings and hold accountable the mayors on the pacts signed
• Prepare monitoring report for each municipality.