Donor: Westminster Foundation for Democracy, UK
Project Description: Efforts to build models for accountable representation and constitutional role of the Member of Parliament still constitute a challenge for building citizens’ trust in country’s political establishment. The project addressed the issue of accountability of Member of Parliament (MP) to their constituents and creating a model of constitutional responsibilities of members of parliament. The most important objective of the project was to establish effective links of MPs with an inclusive representation of constituents irrespective of political affiliation that helps creating the image of “politicians serving the people”.
Two members of parliament Mr. Besnik Mustafaj (currently Albania’s Foreign Minister) of the Democratic Party and Mr.
Marko Bello of the Socialist Party worked closely with IDM to implement project activities in their respective constituencies. As an output, IDM in close collaboration with several MPs formulated amendments to the existing law on the local staff of the MP’s local offices, in order to enhance the role of the office and help improve accountability and responsibility of the members of parliament. The experiences of the project and the specification of duties of the offices of the MPs, were included in the publication.