The Parliamentary Rules Chatbot is an open-source project from the nonpartisan nonprofit POPVOX Foundation, developed in partnership with the Parliamentary Institute.
Unlike general-purpose AI tools, this chatbot is built specifically for the Albanian parliamentary environment. It provides practical answers about session procedures, debate rules, and parliamentary traditions — all based on the official Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania.
The chatbot uses a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system that grounds responses in factual information rather than guessing, along with the OpenAI API on the limited "creativity" setting, so the API only pulls directly from the documents it is referencing. This approach reduces AI "hallucinations" and ensures accurate answers tailored to Albanian parliamentary operations.
The knowledge base includes:
Parliamentary Rules: The complete text of the approved rules of procedure
Session procedures: Detailed guidelines for conducting sessions
Voting rules: Different types of voting and required quorums
Committee organization: Functioning and competencies of committees
Parliamentary traditions: Established practices of the Assembly
The Parliamentary Institute is an organization specialized in strengthening parliamentary institutions and improving democratic governance in Albania. Their partnership with POPVOX Foundation brings local expertise and deep understanding of the Albanian context to this innovative project.
This collaboration combines POPVOX Foundation's technological expertise in civic tech with Parliamentary Institute's specialized knowledge of the Albanian parliamentary system, creating a tool that is both technologically advanced and culturally appropriate.
Beyond simply providing answers, this chatbot serves as a proof-of-concept for how Parliament-tailored AI tools can improve information access for MPs, parliamentary staff, and citizens. Using the tool offers hands-on experience with AI capabilities, building organizational expertise that supports more informed policymaking and parliamentary oversight.
This project demonstrates the potential of technology to make democratic institutions more accessible and transparent, contributing to the strengthening of parliamentary democracy in Albania.
This chatbot is the first step in a broader vision for digitalizing parliamentary processes in Albania. Long-term objectives include:
Improving citizen access to parliamentary information
Supporting MPs and staff in navigating complex procedures
Promoting parliamentary transparency and accountability
Creating a model for other democratic institutions in the region
As an open-source project, this chatbot's source code is available to the developer community and other organizations wishing to create similar tools. We believe in the power of collaboration to advance civic technology and strengthen democracy.
