Endri Shabani

Endri Shabani (born Endrit Skënder Shabani; 8 February 1985) is an Albanian lawyer, academic, civic activist and former politician who has served as the Ombudsman of Albania since December 2025. Before his election as Ombudsman, he was chairman of Nisma Thurje, a civic movement and political party associated with electoral reform, anti-corruption campaigns and criticism of Albania's dominant political parties. He also served as a member of the Tirana Municipal Council from 2023 until 2025.

Shabani became known publicly through civil-society campaigns on electoral reform, environmental issues and public-sector concessions. He was among the figures who denounced the waste management incinerator concessions and the surgical-sterilisation concession to Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors, and he criticised the handling of the 2021 patronageist voter-database affair after the online outlet Lapsi.al reported that a database containing personal information and political preferences of about 910,000 citizens had been used by the Socialist Party. His public criticism of the governing Socialist Party and Prime Minister Edi Rama has focused on alleged state capture, misuse of state resources, clientelism, media pressure and electoral abuses; these issues have also been raised more broadly by international monitoring organisations in relation to Albanian elections and governance.

Early life and education Shabani was born in Tirana on 8 February 1985.

In 2014 he received a Clarendon Fund scholarship for doctoral studies at the University of Oxford. He completed a DPhil in politics and international relations at St Antony's College, Oxford in 2020.

Academic and professional career From 2007 to 2011 Shabani worked as a project manager at Transparency International Albania. He later worked as a consultant for the Council of Europe on an anti-corruption project in Albania, and as a consultant for UN Women in Albania.

The campaign took place in a wider political environment in which international election observers had repeatedly criticised Albania's electoral framework and implementation. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) later concluded that the 2021 Albanian parliamentary election offered voters a choice of candidates and fundamental freedoms were generally respected, but that the ruling party gained a significant advantage from its control of local administrations and the misuse of administrative resources; the mission also noted widespread allegations of vote buying and pressure on public-sector employees.

Anti-corruption complaints Shabani and Nisma Thurje became associated with complaints and public denunciations concerning public concessions and procurement. In December 2019, Shabani and surgeon Artan Koni filed a complaint with the newly established Special Structure against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) concerning the surgical sterilisation concession, asking prosecutors to investigate suspicions regarding the cost, duration and public benefit of the contract.

Shabani was also cited by Freedom House in connection with early public allegations about Albania's waste-incinerator concessions. Freedom House's 2023 Nations in Transit report described the incinerators as the main corruption topic in Albania and stated that allegations about irregularities in the concession contracts had first been brought forward by Shabani as head of Nisma Thurje, followed by other complainants and investigations. The report noted that SPAK was investigating three incinerator contracts worth about €178 million and that corruption concerns around the concessions had become a major issue in Albanian politics.

During the same election campaign, Lapsi.al reported that the Socialist Party had access to a database containing personal data and political preferences of about 910,000 voters in Tirana. The database became known in Albania as the patronageist database, after the party activists or officials described in the material as patronazhistë. Media Ownership Monitor Albania, a project of the Global Media Registry and BIRN Albania, later reported that the case was considered by OSCE/ODIHR to have undermined public trust and vote secrecy, while Albanian prosecutors attempted to seize Lapsi.al equipment before an interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights halted the seizure.

Shabani criticised SPAK's summons of Lapsi.al journalists and argued that prosecutors should investigate Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Socialist Party over the database, rather than pressure the media outlet that published it. He described the incident as a privacy violation and as evidence of what he called a parti-shtet (party-state) structure, a term used by critics in Albania to describe the overlap between the governing party and public administration. As a municipal councillor, he was part of a small opposition bloc outside the two dominant party groupings of the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party of Albania.

His municipal activity continued his wider criticism of public procurement, urban governance and the concentration of decision-making power in the hands of party leaderships. The 2023 local elections took place in a polarised environment, and OSCE/ODIHR observers reported concerns about misuse of state resources, pressure on public-sector employees and voters, and allegations of vote buying.

Ombudsman of Albania Election The office of Ombudsman of Albania had been held by Erinda Ballanca, whose term ended in 2022 but who continued to exercise the function until a successor was elected. On 11 December 2025, the Parliament of Albania elected Shabani as Ombudsman after a prolonged and disputed selection process. Albanian media reported that he received 85 votes, mostly from the Socialist parliamentary majority, while much of the opposition left the chamber and criticised the process as predetermined. Shabani took the oath and began his five-year term on 18 December 2025.

Shabani's election was notable because he had been an outspoken critic of the government and the dominant party system, but was elected with votes from the Socialist majority after opposition MPs withdrew from the session. Supporters described his academic and civil-society background as relevant to the institution, while critics of the parliamentary process argued that the majority had controlled the outcome.

Later that month, Shabani visited a Tirana police station where several detained protesters were being held and said the Ombudsman's Office had opened an investigation into the chain of command and proportionality of police conduct. He argued that police measures should not intimidate citizens from exercising the right to protest.

In February 2026, Shabani was elected president of the Association of Mediterranean Ombudsmen, a regional organisation of ombuds institutions.

Political views and public criticism Corruption and state capture Shabani's political activity has centred on anti-corruption, electoral reform and criticism of the concentration of power in Albania's two main parties. He has described major public concessions as examples of the capture of public decision-making by private interests and party elites. His complaints about the sterilisation and incinerator concessions were part of a broader public debate about corruption in Albania, where Freedom House has reported that corruption and bribery remain major problems and that political leaders dominate party structures and state institutions. Shabani's public statements on the patronageist database therefore fit into a wider debate about privacy, media capture and political influence over information in Albania.