The project “My vote count” which was implemented during the period 15 November 2018 – 15 January 2019 had as a general objective the contribution to the strengthening of the democratic electoral processes in a political democracy in Albania. This objective was achieved through the promotion of informed participation of Roma voters and the introduction of an institutional culture of the electoral campaign in the local elections in June 2019. The goals of this project were:
- Increasing the knowledge and skills of Roma electoral meditators on civic and political inalienable right to vote and related electoral processes.
- Making the political voice of Roma heard through more dialogic and transparent electoral processes that encourage informed vote-casting and discourage practices such as family voting and vote-selling/vote- buying.
In framework of the project on December 19, 2018, in IRCAs premises took place the Project Steering Committee meeting. The Committee consists of IRCA representatives, Central Electoral Committee, Roma focal point from Ministry of Health and Social Protection and Ministry of Education Sports and Youth, representative from National State Minority Committee and representative from Roma CSO. From the meeting was agreed, the committee will meet every three months in order to give advices and recommendations before, during and after the campaign and to play a facilitating role for the good implementation of the project and also was agreed on the criteria for the selection of the Roma mediators.
The results of the project “My Vote Count” :
- A Kick-off Event was organized to share and coordinate with relevant stakeholders the campaign.
- 2 Days Training of Trainers (ToT) was organized with more than 20 Roma Youth from 8 Regions on Elections and one detailed plan is prepared for the second phase February – June -2019
- Two podcasts are produced and shared on the Community Radio Capitol and social networks on the importance of the participation in election.
- 29 relevant stakeholders from central and local Government participated on the Kick-off Event of the project “My Vote Counts” and to actively participate in the activities planned during the project implementation.
- More than 20 Roma and non Roma Youth from Tirana, Durres, Elbasan, Fier, Lezha, Korca, Berat and Gjirokastra trained on Training of Trainers for Electoral Civic Mediation.