The latest study on freedom of vote and family voting was introduced to the public from “Hotel Tirana International” on May 27th, 2014. The “Freedom of Vote and Family Voting” 2014 study, conducted by the Institute for Development Research and Alternatives (IDRA) with the technical and financial assistance of the UN Women, is based on a national survey of 2000 respondents, ofage18 + years old. The main objective of this study is to elicit citizens’ opinion on different practices that might intervene with the freedom of voting, evaluate the occurrence of the “Family Voting” phenomenon, as well as understand and identify the current flaws behind such practices.

The vast majority of respondents (93%) declare that they felt “completely free” when making their decision on whom to vote in 2013 elections.  Such findings suggest that direct, obvious or violent pressure on voters to vote against their will, has not been highly present. It does not however rule out the possibility that votes were promised in return of various favors. Indeed, about 43% of respondents declare to be aware of cases in which votes were promised in return of favors. Particularly, voting “to keep the current job”, to “get a job after elections” and in return “of money or gifts” are mentioned as frequent phenomena encountered by more than one third of the respondents.

The majority of the population, especially women, take little interest in politics. One in three respondents (34%) is “non at all interested” in politics while an additional 18% show very low levels of interest towards these matters (“not too interested”). Only 18% of respondents declare to be “very interested” in matters of politics  and government. The breakdown by gender clearly shows that women are particularly less interested in politics (38% of females vs. 29% of males declaring to be “not at all interested”). About 25% of males declare to be “very interested” compared to only 12% of females who state alike.

Civic engagement, measured by respondent- declared membership levels in different political and civil society organizations, is weak overall. Only 1 in 10 people declares to be a member of a political party, 1 in 30 people declares to be part of a religious group and negligible numbers declare to be part of civil society organizations/NGOs. Women’s level of participation in these organizations is even lower. Almost 9 in 10 adult women declare to have never been a political party member, compared to 7 out of 10 men stating alike.

Women show a much lower level of civic activism even in terms of using various instruments/ways to express their opinions on political or social issues. Only 12% of women declare to have contacted a public official over the last 12 months to express their concerns. Such figure is two times lower than the percentage of males who declare the same (25% of male respondents have contacted a public official over the last 12 months). An even more concerning issue is that 41% of women declare that they would never contact or visit a public official in order to express their opinion on political or social matters, far more than males who declare the same (25%). The use of social networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.) to express opinions on political or social issues is also very low (8% of males and 6% of females declare to have used them for this purpose). Petitions, protests/demonstrations or media are also among the least used instruments for the above mentioned purposes.

While the majority of Albanians would support a greater participation of women in politics, there

is a considerable part of the population, even among women, who think that “men make better political leaders than women”.Up to 58% of male and 38% of female respondents agree that “men make better political leaders than women”. Such findings suggest that while a higher participation of women in politics may be the correct political stance, this opinion is not translated into a widespread and fully acceptable belief, and no concrete actions are taken to succesfully achieve it.

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