Last week, in front of the media, Mjaft! Movement unveiled a concise electronic database containing information about the mayoral candidates for the February 18th local elections in Albania. This webpage will also provide its visitors with information about the elections themselves.
The database can be found by clicking on the link below: Unevotoj.com
Arbi Mazniku, Mjaft!’s Policy Director, stated that the project was made possible by the Soros Foundation under the auspices of the “Open Society for Albania” project. Such an initiative will inform the citizens of Albania about the candidates and the elections. It will also allow them to take a real part in this democratic process.
Project Manager Elsi Rizvanolli later presented the webpage in detail, stating that the database contains information about electoral platforms as well as each candidate’s biographical information. Mr. Rizvanolli also stated that the information for the database has been gathered by the “Une Votoj” team as a part of the Mjaft! Caravan, which is touring all of the major cities nationwide. It is part of Mjaft!’s second “Shkunde Voten” (“Rock The Vote”) campaign.
After the elections, a team of activists from Mjaft! will attend various Municipal Council meetings in order to assess whether the electoral promises made by the winning candidates are actually implemented.
One journalist questioned the project’s ability to reach out to the population given the relatively small number of people that use the internet in Albania. Mr. Mazniku responded by stating once again that Mjaft! is doing the nationwide “Shkunde Voten” campaign to offer every citizen the chance to become better informed about each of the electoral candidates.
This media campaign is being carried out by employing all types of communication so that the entire population has access to information; the website Unevotoj.com, on the other hand, is a tool that can be utilized at a later date as an important reference and monitoring database.
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