2016 Macedonian Elections

[Vangelovski]

Apparantly there has been (another) breakdown in talks between DPMNE and SDSM over organising early elections.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-warned-over-crisis-deal-stalemate-10-21-2015

Everyone was so looking forward to choosing between the two...

[Gocka]

Hey look a topic about Macedonia! Lets see if we can shit all over this thread as well!

On a serious note, is anyone surprised by this? I never believed DPMNE would let go that easily. They just put on a nice little show to defuse the tensions and calm the protests and now its back to business as usual. Its not like it matters, you can't find a Macedonian from 20-40 years old left in Macedonia. Only old people are left and kids who can't leave yet.

[Vangelovski]

I don't think Macedonians would be satisfied with a result in which either DPMNE or SDSM wins, but due to their lack of commitment to their own future (and a whole bunch of democratic deficits), Macedonians don't seem like they can create an alternative movement that could form government anyway.

Its BS as usual for Macedonia in the decades ahead...at least until the Albanians decide they want to challenge the existing order again.

[DraganOfStip]

I don't see why Grujo wouldn't want these elections to happen.
After all,his army of party employed followers and their most immediate family members guarantee him 350 - 400 000 votes as usual,and that number can only get bigger knowing that his "rivals" are the clowns of SDSM.
Another 4-year mandate in office for DPMNE is imminent.

So that leaves SDSM as the ones that are undermining the Przino agreement because they know they can't win and are doing everything they can (setting impossible conditions) for this to turn into another fiasco.
They want to come to power without elections because they know the people will never elect them again.
Even if Grujo accepts all their terms they'll just find another excuse for the electoral defeat (whenever the elections are held).

And while the sheeple in Macedonia can't agree to vote for a third option and are only seeing the elections in black and white,they'll continue to sink more and more until they completely vanish in oblivion.

[George S.]

New elections earlier ones are not in the int eterest of grujo.What choice is there??

[Risto the Great]

So that leaves SDSM as the ones that are undermining the Przino agreement because they know they can't win and are doing everything they can (setting impossible conditions) for this to turn into another fiasco.
They want to come to power without elections because they know the people will never elect them again.

That surely is the justification and source of the trouble. It is a shame some young people (who aren't burdened by history) can't create an uprising. I think Macedonia needs to fall apart before it can rise again given the conditions there.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Even if his party wins, how much longer is Gruevski legally allowed to be PM? Do any of you have any thoughts as to who may be nominated as his successor?

[DraganOfStip]

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) through it's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights(ODIHR) issued their report on the political situation and the cancelled early elections.
Here are the most important remarks:

The OSCE/ODIHR EOM received credible allegations of pressure on public sector employees to
attend the counter-demonstrations, including threats of loss of employment, however no official
complaints have been filed.
Several OSCE/ODIHR EOM interlocutors attributed this to a culture of
fear of retribution existing in state companies and institutions

The State Election Commission (SEC) continues to work in a very tense political environment. As
of 15 April, the two members nominated by SDSM have not participated in the SEC sessions.
Despite a legal obligation to meet publicly, the SEC held two closed sessions, and its decisions
have not been systematically published on its website. Many SEC regional offices complained
about lack of resources and insufficient support from the headquarters.

Some 1.8 million voters could check only their own data electronically, but not that of other
citizens as required by law. The SEC has not published the voter lists online, due to a decision of
the Directorate for Personal Data Protection. Upon a SEC appeal, the Administrative Court is yet
to decide on the matter.

The first monitoring report of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services concluded
that private broadcasters Alfa, Kanal 5, Kanal 5+, Sitel and Nova have so far failed to provide
objective, equitable and unbiased coverage. It further concluded that the first four media listed
above co-ordinated their editorial policy.

The preliminary OSCE/ODIHR EOM media monitoring data shows that public MRT-1 so far
provided limited information about political events. Public MRT-2 and Alsat-M provided more
coverage to the Albanian parties. While private Sitel, Kanal 5 and Alfa show bias for VMRODPMNE
and against SDSM, private Telma and Vesti 24 are more balanced.

An ongoing concern for the SEC is the so called ‘Pustec voters’: citizens living in Albania whose
voter eligibility remains in question because of unclear residency status.These persons were
allegedly added to the voter lists in Skopje Centar municipality to influence the outcome of local
elections.

The full report in PDF here: http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/...?download=true

[DraganOfStip]

Macedonia Parliament Dissolves for Early Elections

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-parliament-dissolves-for-snap-polls-10-17-2016

The Macedonian parliament dissolved on Monday head of the much-anticipated pre-term elections in December 11 which are intended to help end the country’s long-running political crisis.
Sinisa Jakov Marusic BIRN Skopje

The dissolution of parliament on Monday ended several days of uncertainty about whether the country would be able to stick to the legal deadlines for the December 11 early elections that were agreed this summer at EU-sponsored talks between Macedonia’s warring politicians.

A total of 110 out of 123 MPs from both the ruling and opposition party voted in favour of the dissolution. The vote was followed by loud applause from the MPs.

The dissolution was preceded by a vote for the national budget for 2017 after only two hours of debate.

The budget was only backed by the ruling party legislators, but the opposition decided not to prolong the budget debate in order to speed up the dissolution.

Earlier on Monday, the opposition proposed draft law changes which were aimed at aiding the work of the Special Prosecution, SJO, which is tasked with investigating high-level crime.

However ruling party MPs, for the second time in just two weeks, did not give their backing to the changes which would have prolonged the work of the SJO and allowed for better witness protection.

Originally parliament was set to dissolve last Wednesday, exactly two months before the election date.

But uncertainty arose after the opposition and the ruling VMRO DPMNE party accused each other of deliberately keeping the parliament working because they were afraid of the elections.

On Friday, visiting EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn urged both sides to take action to maintain the agreed election date.

The elections, which come after two postponements of the date earlier this year, are intended to pave a way out of Macedonia's long-running political crisis.

The political crisis revolves around opposition claims that the government engaged in illegal mass wiretapping operations.

In February 2015, the opposition started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes, which it said showed that the VMRO DPMNE-led government had been behind the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including ministers.

It also said the tapes proved many criminal allegations against government members, including election-rigging.

VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski, who was prime minister from 2006 until he resigned earlier this year under an EU-brokered deal, has insisted that the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition to destabilise the country.

So the Macedonian people will go out on December 11th elections:

[DraganOfStip]

Deutsche Welle: Pressures for voting build up in public sector

Exempt:

According to previous reports, most pressures were on employees in the public sector, and were most pronounced in smaller towns. Reports of pressures multiply in the Interior Ministry, the SEC, the OSCE / ODIHR and certified election monitors.
Pressures from managers on hierarchically subordinate officials with conditioning of job security, hinting at disciplinary actions, demotion and deployment to other jobs, often outside their place of residence ... These are just some of the pre-election pressure on voters who are documented and registered in the institutions responsible for monitoring the free and unconditional right to vote and to sanction violations of these rights. Reports of pressure on voters arrive at MIA, the SEC, the OSCE / ODIHR, and to NGOs with observer missions to elections and the period which preceds them, but also to foreign embassies.
According to informal statistics, pressures dominate the administration, but not only there.Largely also in education, like as we saw the last report from yesterday, it refers to approved absence from classes that the principle of a high school in a small town gave the students so that they can go and join the youth wing of a political party. Reactions come from parents, teachers, employees, unemployed, recipients of various social contributions, but also from people who still hope to exercise that right.

Full article in Macedonian here: http://www.dw.com/mk/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0...-4727-xml-mrss

[Amphipolis]

From VMRO-DPMNE gathering!

[Tomche Makedonche]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-s-albanian-parties-focus-on-ethnic-issues-for-elections-12-04-2016

Macedonia Albanians Stick to Ethnic Issues in Election

Albanian parties in Macedonia are focusing on standard ethnic issues in the December 11 election - while more pressing everyday problems that need solving are being left out, experts fear.
Parties representing ethnic Albanians in Macedonia - about a quarter of the population - are campaigning on traditional ethnic issues in the December 11 elections, wooing voters with pledges to ensure greater use of the Albanian language and improve of the status of Albanians in the country.

Amidst the big ethnic issues, everyday problems of more immediate concern to voters risk being left out, observers say.

“Improving education, health, culture, infrastructure, unemployment and other social measures are hardly mentioned in their programmes, while ethnic issues are dominant,” political analyst Xhelal Neziri told BIRN.

The two main Albanian parties, the junior ruling party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, and the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, are both pitching squarely for the ethnic vote.

The DUI pledges to make the Albanian language official on the entire territory of the country - Albanian is currently an official tongue only in those areas where Albanians are a significant proportion of the population. The DUI also promises decision-making based on ethnic consensus in every institution including parliament as well as economic equality for Albanians.

Unlike in the 2014 general and presidential elections, the DUI has not not mentioned demands for one of the three leading political posts to go to an Albanian - either the President, speaker of parliament or the Prime Minister. The party has been present in coalition governments in Macedonia since 2008.The DPA on the other hand centres its campaign on pledges to end what it says is economic discrimination against Albanians through the disproportionate allocation of the state budget in favour of the Macedonian majority.

DPA leader Menduh Thaci also promises a fiscal amnesty for many Albanians in debt as well as general amnesty for ethnic Albanian suspects and convicts in several politically and ethnically charged trials, in which he says Albanians suspects were framed by the authorities.

The DPA also promises to boost the powers of the Deputy Prime Minister, who is usually Albanian, to give him or her the right to veto government decisions that affect Albanians.

Other newly formed Albanian parties running in the December 11 elections are demanding constitutional changes. The Movement for Reform - Democratic Party of Albanians is committed to what it calls a bi-national state, as is another new party, Besa.

Neziri says such promises are unrealistic as none of these parties is going to win a majority of seats in parliament, so they will be in no position to fulfill their ambitious pledges.

Parliament in Macedonia has 123 seats, Neziri explains, of which realistically Albanians can hope to win about 25.Traditionally, the winning ethnic Macedonian party invites the winner in the Albanian bloc to join a coalition government as a junior partner. However, many Albanians have long felt that the junior party in government has little real power.

Neziri argues that populistic and illusory promises play on sentimental feelings, trying to imbue Albanians with a feeling that they have been duped by the promises made to them after 2001.Macedonia in that year saw a brief armed conflict between Albanian insurgents and the security forces. The conflict ended the same year with the signing of an internationally-brokered peace accord in Ohrid that guaranteed greater rights to Albanians who make up a quarter of the country’s 2.1 million population.

[Amphipolis]

Did anyone vote this time?

Aussie Diaspora votes, ruling Govt crushes opposition

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/30661/1/

[DraganOfStip]

Did anyone vote this time?

Aussie Diaspora votes, ruling Govt crushes opposition

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/30661/1/

That article is from yesterday (as I can see), and knowing the fact that ALL votes get counted TODAY once all ballots are closed (19 h local time), there is no way any such info could be available to anyone.
That said,coming from MINA that propaganda BS doesn't surprise me at all.

[Amphipolis]

Can't find any Live Results link. Any help?