The latest investigations into former Socialist MP Jurgis Çyrbja expose the deep connections between organized crime and politics, as well as their influence on the electoral process – distorting, according to experts, the free vote and the country’s democratic system.
On the eve of the 2021 parliamentary elections, the Socialist Party candidate for the Shijak area, Jurgis Çyrbja, received a promise from a local crime boss through a conversation on the SKY ECC app that he would secure thousands of votes in his electoral area.
“I’ll give you 3 thousand, maje man,” Altin Hajri, the owner of a luxury resort in Shijak, who is internationally wanted for drug trafficking and the disappearance of a person, is quoted as having written to him. “We’ve blinded Gjepalen.”
The discovery of SKY ECC communications led to the arrest in October 2024 of Jurgis Çyrbja, after a decade-long tumultuous career as a local administration leader and two-term member of the Albanian Parliament.
According to the Special Prosecution’s investigation, the Çyrbja case represents a typical example of the deep connections that exist between organized crime and politics in Albania, as well as the role of this symbiosis in the electoral process and in the field of law enforcement.
The Special Prosecution’s investigations suggest that Çyrbja was an investment of organized crime in the safe list of Socialist Party candidates in the Durrës area – while being accused of serving them with secret information on police operations or with assistance in cases when they had problems with law enforcement institutions.
As a result of these connections, Çyrbja is accused of “election corruption”, as he is suspected of mobilizing members of organized crime to secure votes for the ruling Socialist Party.
The Çyrbja case is not isolated. Two previous Serious Crimes investigations, known as files 339 and 184, revealed the involvement of criminal groups in the 2017 parliamentary elections as well as the 2016 local by-elections in Debar in favor of the Socialist Party. However, the investigations were closed without any visible results.
‘Through force and money’
On the eve of the parliamentary elections of May 11, 2025, the Special Prosecution Office declared that it has drafted a strategy for electoral crimes, taking a proactive role in preventing and investigating crimes related to electoral corruption, abuse of administration or the involvement of organized crime.
The strategy also includes the establishment of an Election Task Force, with a central structure in SPAK and investigative groups on the ground to cover electoral zones in Albania.
However, political observers and civil society representatives are concerned about the conduct of these elections, given the facts made public about the influence that organized crime groups exert on electoral processes.
Ervis Iljazaj, a lecturer in Political Science at the European University of Tirana, told BIRN that organized crime has become a worrying phenomenon for Albanian society, economy and politics. Their service to politics, according to Iljazaj, is linked to their engagement in electoral campaigns through “force or money”.
“It is no longer an opinion, but a fact that certain gangs in certain cities engage in collecting votes which then turn into favors that the government does them,” said Iljazaj.
“The problem is that now their money does not only come from criminal activities, but through connections with politics they have entered the “regular” economy, especially in the construction market,” he added.
While assessing that the weight and exact role of organized crime in the final election result is difficult to determine, Iljazaj says that the investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office and data published in the media clearly show the impact.
“With the electoral system we have, a handful of votes can make the difference in winning a mandate or losing it. So, yes, in some cases it can be decisive by distorting the free will of the voters and popular sovereignty,” he emphasized.
For Gentjan Serjani, leader of the organization “Social Justice,” the role of organized crime goes as far as determining the deputies of Parliament and is “determinative of which party will be in power.”
Serjani also emphasized that crime particularly affects vulnerable groups in society.
“Crime operates to secure votes through buying, threatening individuals who work for political opponents, as well as through financial support of electoral campaigns for certain individuals,” Serjani said.
“Crime affects all categories, but more specifically vulnerable groups,” he added, emphasizing that in these cases intimidation is used.
Experts assess that the involvement of organized crime in elections is an increased risk for Albania’s fragile democracy./BIRN
