Macedonian Presidential Elections 2014

[Niko777]

Vankovska and Angelov have failed to gather 10,000 signatures, they're out of the race for president

[DedoAleko]

Vankovska and Angelov hardly to reach 10,000 signatures required to run for president

izvor: http://utrinski.mk/?ItemID=577613304...C820F2EC9ED657

[Vangelovski]

propaganda targeting the diaspora

Using the sonce and hoping we won't notice the ventilator above it. That basically sums DPMNE up - plastic patriotism. Smoke and mirrors to confuse the sheep.

[Risto the Great]

Ivanov was of no consequence whatsoever.
He couldn't possibly be a candidate worth considering.

[Niko777]

propaganda targeting the diaspora

[DedoAleko]

Stevo Pendarovski candidate for president from sdsm

izvor: http://makfax.com.mk/#330280

[Vangelovski]

What do you guys think the chances are of the albanians unilaterally trying to elect their own president and setting up their own parallel government?

Anyone could do it, I just don't think the Albanians in Macedonia are politically united enough to pull it off. They are too fractured in terms of DPA supporters on one side and DUI supporters on the other, with a few smaller parties on the periphery. That does not mean that DPA and DUI essentially have the same cause in mind in a global sense, its more of a struggle for power between two sets of elites. In addition to that, they do have very different economic ideas that further divides them.

The Albanians in Macedonia, while virtually united on their idea of Albanianism, are still divided in terms of party politics. They don't exactly have the equivalent of Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo, which was virtually unchallenged in Kosovo during the 90's and led the Albanian state within a state. Without that kind of organisational unity, they would not be able to pull it off as only part of the Albanian community would participate in a shadow government, rendering it effectively useless.

Besides, why control only part of the Macedonian state when you can indirectly control the whole state and access much larger resources through the FA?

[Risto the Great]

What do you guys think the chances are of the albanians unilaterally trying to elect their own president and setting up their own parallel government?

I would say about as much chance as Macedonians doing the same thing. Naturally it needs to be stated that Macedonians do not presently have their own president or government.

[Gocka]

This time around we will see a real push to get an albanian elected as president both from inside and outside Macedonia.

Lets see if Macedonians will cave. We have been talking about this moment for 10 years, finally the day has come when there is a real possibility for there to be an albanian president. They used to say we were paranoid for saying such things, I wonder what they think now?

What do you guys think the chances are of the albanians unilaterally trying to elect their own president and setting up their own parallel government?

[George S.]

question how can one minority Albanian get constitutional gurantees as to rights,priveleges all they want is secession who is the idiot who allow that to exist .In effect eroding sovereignity. I heard that the rom govt can't send police even to police parts of tetetovo.SWE have no go zones.GThis erodes sovereignity.What would happen if the other minorities besides Albanian wantheir similar rights.Also where is the majority rule & respect off by the minorities all they want is to take Macedonia's land.Where is the enshinement in the constitution Macedonia for the Macedonians.(Macedonian citizens)What happens when Albanians don't want to be Macedonian citizens?

[Risto the Great]

There's a lot of ball manipulation going on there.

The nature of the FA in my opinion.

[Vangelovski]

Why not?
They are almost within their power to do it if they argue this issue fits into the FA:

"For laws that directly affect culture, use of language, education, personal documentation, and use of symbols, the Assembly makes decisions by a majority vote of the Representatives attending, within which there must be a majority of the votes of the Representatives attending who claim to belong to the communities not in the majority in the population of Macedonia."

I would say the President affects culture directly.

There's a lot of ball manipulation going on there.

[Risto the Great]

An Albanian NGO wants to use the Badinter Principle for the selection of Presidents now...

Why not?
They are almost within their power to do it if they argue this issue fits into the FA:

"For laws that directly affect culture, use of language, education, personal documentation, and use of symbols, the Assembly makes decisions by a majority vote of the Representatives attending, within which there must be a majority of the votes of the Representatives attending who claim to belong to the communities not in the majority in the population of Macedonia."

I would say the President affects culture directly.

[Vangelovski]

Ivanov is the official candidate for VMRO-DPMNE

According to this they haven't selected a candidate yet - that will be done at their convention in 1 March 2014 and there are three contenders.

http://www.dnevnik.mk/default.asp?It...9C1BDBE7A651AD

[Vangelovski]

An Albanian NGO wants to use the Badinter Principle for the selection of Presidents now...

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...sidential-poll

Macedonia Albanians Warned Against Poll Boycott

The Macedonian prime minister told Albanian parties that they would be making a mistake if they heeded one NGO’s call to boycott the April presidential elections.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski on Sunday warned against the idea of a boycott, which was suggested recently by an NGO seen as close to his ethnic Albanian partners in the current ruling coalition, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

“I hope that Albanian parties will not do that. If they decide to do it, I think that they would realise that they had made a big mistake,” Gruevski said, without elaborating further.

An ethnic Albanian NGO called Wake Up has called for an Albanian boycott of the forthcoming elections due to the refusal of Gruevski’s main VMRO DPMNE party to take up the DUI’s Idea for a ‘consensus’ president agreed between Macedonian and Albanian parties.

“We call upon other organisations from civil society, the Islamic religious community and the Albanian-language media to actively engage in preventing the election of Macedonian president whom Albanians do not recognise,” the NGO said in a press release.

“No Macedonian president can claim to legitimately represent the country without the votes of the Albanians. We say that in the future the president should be chosen in parliament with a double majority of votes [from both Macedonian and Albanian MPs],” the NGO added.
The call for boycott reflects a rift within the government coalition’s ranks. The NGO’s close links with the DUI were evident at last year’s local elections, when the party endorsed the longstanding head of Wake Up, Artan Grubi, as candidate for mayor of Skopje.

The call for boycott comes after last week Gruevski’s party indirectly refused DUI’s proposal for an inter-party consensus on a new president when it said it would select its own candidate through an open call instead.

A possible boycott could jeopardise the success of the entire election process because, in the second round of voting, many say it will be very hard to secure the required 40 per cent voter turnout without the participation of Albanians, who make one quarter of Macedonia’s population of 2.1 million. It has also been rumoured that the call for a boycott is a step towards a premeditated government scenario for setting up parallel early general elections along with the second round of presidential polls on April 27.

According to this scenario, media have speculated, the prime minister could use the boycott as an excuse to call early general elections to boost voter turnout. Various opinion polls have shown that Gruevski’s party would be the favourite if early elections were held.