ID CARD UPDATE - CITY OF BERAT

UNCLAS TIRANA 000299

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SCE J.ISMAIL

E.O. 12958:N/A
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PHUM PREL AL
SUBJECT: ID CARD UPDATE - CITY OF BERAT

REF: TIRANA 0159


1. (U) SUMMARY: An Embassy team on May 15 made a follow-up visit to
the central Albanian city of Berat to check the ID card registration
process and get an overall feel for local attitudes concerning the
elections. In Berat, interlocutors told the Embassy that the
decision to provide subsidized IDs has come late in the process and
involves too many institutions and structures, making the process
unnecessarily slow, cumbersome and confusing. Meetings with a range
of local officials seemingly confirm what Post has been hearing
anecdotally from other parts of the country: that the
implementation of plans to provide discounted IDs for many voters
has been problematic, with many voters complaining that the process
is frustratingly confusing, complicated and expensive. END SUMMARY.



2. (U) Some pensioners, students and some people on welfare qualify
for receiving ID cards for 200 leke or for free. However,
administrative requirements to get a discounted ID have discouraged
many. First, a citizen must take his birth certificate to a local
post office to obtain a coupon for partial or complete payment of
the ID card fee. The post office supposedly has lists established
by a local government council and state police of everyone who
qualifies, but our contacts said the lists are far from complete.
(Note: To get a birth certificate, the local civil registry requires
proof that local taxes have been paid, a sum of 2,500 leke per year,
or more than twice the full price of the ID card. The Minister of
Interior issued a ruling several weeks ago suspending this
requirement, but it is still being enforced in some areas. End
Note.) The citizen then takes the coupon to the application center,
where again he must find his name on a list issued by the police
verifying that he does not have a passport, and on another list from
the government council verifying that the person qualifies for a
subsidized card.


3. (U) Once a citizen has applied, there is no way he can know when
his ID card is ready for pick up. Nominally, the process takes
about 20 days, but some political leaders complain that citizens in
the "wrong" political area have waited as long as two months. There
is no way for a citizen to find out if his ID card has been delayed
for some reason, or has been lost altogether, as has happened - he
must keep checking back with the center. (NOTE: Problems have not
been limited to rural areas alone - a Tirana city official told
PolOff that a large number of ID card applications made in Tirana in
early February have been lost, meaning that many applicants must
reapply. However, a fight has ensued over how these "lost"
applicants can reapply without having to repay the fee. END NOTE).


4. (U) Another problem area has to do with payment to Sagem, the
company responsible for producing the cards. Their contract
requires payment of 1200 leke per card, and for some reason, this
must be done at local post offices rather than centrally. The post
office prepares a file for every discount coupon, which the
municipality submits to the central government for payment. The
central government was supposed to advance funds to municipalities,
but the mayor of Berat complained that the central government told
him they would pay after the elections, forcing him to come up with
funds from his own municipal budget.


5. (U) COMMENT: As expected, the devil in any way forward on ID
cards would be in the details, and this is where the process seems
to have bogged down at the local level. Overall, the number of
daily ID card applicants is up sharply over April and March, but
even the government has trouble identifying how many of those
applicants lack passports and are thus the people who truly need an
ID in order to vote. For now, the opposition parties are relatively
quiet regarding IDs, but further confusion at the local level could
quickly lead to hot rhetoric and accusations in Tirana. The
opposition Socialist Party continues to watch the ID card process
closely, and only last week party leader Edi Rama upped the ante by
hinting at an SP boycott should the SP determine that not enough ID
cards are getting into the hands of voters. ODIHR long-term
election monitors have deployed around Albania in recent days.
These monitors, along with Embassy election monitoring trips around
the country, will continue to keep a close eye on the ID process.

WITHERS