PL denounces employment in the administration before the May 11 elections: Why is SPAK not reacting?

The Secretary General of the Freedom Party, Brunilda Haxhiu, declared this Friday that the increase in employment in the public administration just three months before the May 11, 2025 elections is an ugly electoral crime and a serious violation of democracy.

In a statement to the media, Haxhiu emphasized that this open abuse of state resources to buy votes, also denounced by international observers, has led to an increase in the number of employees in the state administration, despite the decline in the population and the need for more efficient governance.

She described this phenomenon as evidence of state capture and the use of the administration as an electoral instrument, stating that this is a failed governance model that does not serve the interests of citizens.

Full statement:

The increase in public administration employment three months before the elections is an ugly electoral crime that only SPAK does not see.

This electoral crime committed in order to buy votes on MAY 11, as denounced by the head of the European Parliament observer mission, Mr. Gahler, is not only a barbaric abuse of citizens' taxes but also clear evidence of the misuse of state administration for electoral purposes.

At a time when Albania is facing a dramatic population decline, with thousands of young people leaving every year due to a lack of equal opportunities and prospects for the future, the government chose to fill state offices with militants and political clients, not to improve service to the citizen, but to buy votes with jobs. The criminal use of public administration in campaigns and elections is the clearest face of state capture.

According to INSTAT, in the first quarter of 2025, employment in the public sector increased by 2% compared to the same period a year earlier. But what is even more alarming is the fact that compared to 2019, the number of employees in the state sector increased from 172,900 to 185,400, an increase of 7.3% – at a time when many services are provided online and when the country's population has fallen significantly.

Who is this growth serving? The people who are fleeing, or the party that seeks to hold on to power at all costs?
An administration that grows while the population declines is a tragic paradox. This is no longer governance, but power based on clientelism, not meritocracy. Employees in the administration are not free voters, but victims of pressure, intimidation and blackmail. They are forced to participate in electoral meetings, bring votes or report supporters for the ruling party. This is a violation of the right to vote and the principles of functional democracy.

There can be no free and fair elections when the state has turned into the electoral headquarters of Rilindja.
The use of state resources, vehicles, reconstruction funds, economic aid and subsidies as means of buying votes is an electoral crime and a serious violation of European standards. 

The Freedom Party strongly denounces electoral hiring and pressure on the administration. This is a pure abuse of human resources. Albania needs an efficient, depoliticized and merit-based administration, not a state apparatus used as an electoral weapon. The increase in hiring for electoral effects, while the population is falling and the economy is slowing down, is the clearest symbol of a failed governance model, which cares about the next vote, not the future of the country. Instead of the state being rationalized and made more efficient, it is being used as an electoral fiefdom to reward militants and manipulate the will of the citizens.

Albania needs an administration that serves the citizen, not the electoral farce of the Renaissance. Albania cannot integrate into Europe with blackmailed votes and an administration captured by the party-state.