Friday, March 03, 2023

Albania finally ensured the two fully acredited facilitators of the BRIDGE electoral bodies international curriculum. The two directors of the Central Election Commission, Madalena Koja and Valbona Ballgjini, are part of the in-house capacities of the CEC institution to develop and implement modern and efficient approaches to electoral training and education. The journey started in 2019 by the Academy of Political Studies and International IDEA, with the support of the Council of Europe, to adapt the BRIDGE standard to the education curricula of the Central Election Commission in Albania is successfully completed.

BRIDGE is considered in over 40 countries as one of the main tools to strengthen the methodology and capacities of training and education of electoral bodies. The Council of Europe supported this program within the electoral assistance for Albania. The presentation of the curriculum took place in December 2019 to be followed by the BRIDGE Training to Facilitators (TtF) on July 4-15, 2022, with the participation of 18 election administrators and other experts in the electoral field.

The last training, conducted on March 1-3, 2023 by International IDEA in cooperation with the Rule of Law Center of the University of Helsinki, served as an opportunity for further mentoring of two Albanian trainers and their accreditation by BRIDGE expert Doina Bordeianu . The same process of accreditation and professional growth is intended to be followed in the following months for other trainers certified by BRIDGE in Albania.