A recent poll conducted by Euronews Albania has laid bare what the population think about corruption, their government, and the justice system.
Corruption is one of the most widely shared concerns amongst citizens, with over 90% believing there is a lot of it, or believing in a total breakdown in the government. Only 0.4% of the surveyed individuals say there is no corruption and less than 7% said there was very little.
When compared to other polls taken over the last few months, and especially pre-election, there appears to be an interesting gap in perception. It seems that people thought there was less corruption, or didn’t consider it a significant concern at election time, when compared with just three months later.
The survey also looked at what political affiliations people have. Some 83% of Socialist Party voters said they believe their government, which they support, is corrupt. This was only marginally lower than those who didn’t vote. Figures were similar for Democratic party voters.
Respondents were asked whether they had faith in the Special Court Against Crime and Corruption (SPAK). Out of those without a political preference, 70% said they didn’t think it did or would work.
75% of Socialist Party voters said they believed in it, while only 16% of PD voters thought the same.
This shows that the consensus is that SPAK doesn’t truly crackdown on crime and corruption, particularly among those with no political affiliation or PD voters.
Albania ranks as the 104th cleanest country for corruption in the world. This is according to the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2020, seen by Exit prior to its publication. Albania has dropped a total of 23 places in the previous three years, only recovering two places this year.
The scale which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption, gave Albania just 36 points out of a possible 100, placing it towards the “highly corrupt” end of the spectrum as opposed to “very clean”.
Albania recently agreed to an 86-point UN declaration to protect journalists, prosecute high officials for corruption, and create a multilateral approach to combat the phenomenon of corruption.
The resolution on “challenges and measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation” was signed last week at the first-ever UN General Assembly Special Session against Corruption.
