Shqip
English
Only 6% of the candidates for mayor, of the local elections of 21 June 2015, are young people!
Tirana, 4 June 2015 - The observation of HRH / CRCA Albania, ANYN, Tirana Youth Leadership and the Coalition for Promotion of Women and Youth in Politics, of the lists of candidates of all parties for Local Elections 2015, indicate that in a total of 162 candidates for mayors, only 10 candidates are young people under the age of 35, or about 6%, which shows a very low figure compared with the overall number of young population in the country. When we look at the figures according to the candidates of each political party they indicate the following:
- Democratic Party: 61 candidates of DP in total, 4 are young people under 35 years old, or about 6.5%.
- Socialist Party: 41 candidates of SP in total standing in the local elections, 0 of them are young people under 35 years old.
- Socialist Movement for Integration: 16 candidates in total, only 2 are are young people under 35 years old, or about 12.5%.
- Party for Justice, Integration and Unity: From 2 PJIU candidates, both are young people under 35 years old, or 100%.
- Other parties: From 42 independent candidates or from smaller parties like PSD, PBDNJ, MEGA, AP, etc., only 2 of them are young people or about 4.76%.
Although the main leaders of political parties in Albania support the need of youth to increase their representation in politics, the practice shows a completely different reality. Often the participation and representation of young people in politics is used for electoral purposes rather than to make it a real opportunity to participate and change.
The Coalition for Promotion of Women and Youth in Politics through this Public Statement expresses its concern regarding the attitudes of political parties and low figures of youth’s participation in the candidates lists for mayors that are much lower than the figures of women and girls’ participation. Before the local elections 2015, we want this statement to serve as a reminder to politicians, decision makers and public officials concerning their obligation to enforce existing policies to ensure the participation and representation of young people at all levels.
Given the findings of the national study "Youth Participation in Politics and Decision-making in Albania", which states that from the data for mayors of the municipalities elected on the local elections of 2011, show that by 76 mayors, only 4 were under 35 years old when elected to this post on the national scale. It appears that in absolute terms, the number of youth representation remain very low compared to the number of young people in the country.
These findings as well as the representation of young people in the lists of candidates for Mayors before the local elections of 2015, reinforces our belief that the effective participation of youth in politics can be guaranteed only by establishing institutional mechanisms and policies, which guarantee a greater participation and representation in the political process. One of the ways, that has given its effects in Western Europe, is the establishment of the quota system as a binding mechanism for political parties. Also political parties in Albania must begin the process of revising their statutes in order that the participation and representation of young people, to be a broader participatory process.
