The "Informal Life of Political Parties in Western Balkan Societies" study, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Democracy in Skopje found that Albania had the highest number of voters who were offered the buying of the vote.
The study ended recently and confirmed that 1 out of 5 of the respondents in Albania and Montenegro claimed that they were offered money in exchange of the vote.
To carry out this study were engaged in more than 6 organizations in the region and voters directly addressed the question "Have you been offered money in exchange for the vote?".Specifically, one in five respondents in Montenegro (22.5%) and Albania (20.6%) reported receiving bids or favors in exchange for one vote, while figures in Bosnia and Kosovo were respectively 15.4% and 12.5%.
Pressure on voters is lower in Serbia (8.4%) and Macedonia (7.4%).
The study concludes that in each of the Balkan countries, the number of voters who have received bids for voting represents a significant proportion of the electorate, a measure that also affects the election results.
The number of voters who are targeted with the vote buying bid is more than two-thirds of the votes for the winners of the elections in Albania and Montenegro, while exceeding the number of voters for the winners in Bosnia and Kosovo.
"Our findings should not be taken as an accurate indicator of the effect of clientelism on election results. However, they are very close to the realm of buying clientelism in the region, said Skopje-based Institute for Democracy.
"Our findings suggest that the degree of clientelism is enough to shake the election results," the report said.
The study has also found that political parties in the Balkan countries exert negative pressure forms associated with occasional threats of voters to provide political support.
In Montenegro, 11.7% of respondents reported that they were advised by their managers / bosses to vote for a particular party on the election day, while 7.5% said they were asked to take part in party activities .
The respective figures are 6% / 3.4% in Macedonia, 5.5% / 5.1% in Kosovo, 5.2% / 6% in Serbia, 4.8% / 5.6% in Albania and 4.5% / 3.3% in Bosnia.