“The political will is crucial for fair and democratic elections whenever they are held,” said the President of the State Election Commission, Aleksandar Novakoski, Thursday. He also called on the parties to work more on their mutual trust for that is the only way to make the electorate trust them more.
“Without that trust and mutual respect, we are all making contribution to the creation of an atmosphere that is not good for the pre-election year,” Novakoski said and added that this attitude spoilt the atmosphere for holding good elections. “It will be irresponsible of us if we fail to muster strength and political will to pass the modifications to the election law.”
In his view, it is necessary to improve the election legislation in order to eliminate all remarks from the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission laid out in the report on the presidential and local elections of 2009.
The State Election Commission is prepared for early elections provided they are carried out by the present election law. However, in order to hold elections meeting all standards that an EU candidate member state should meet, the election law needs to undergo corrections.
“If certain flawed provisions change, especially with regard to the vote of the diaspora, the elections can be carried out by the present election law,” Novakoski said.
He said that it was true that the revision of the voters’ list coordinated by the Secretariat for European Affairs was incomplete.
“If the Government and the political parties believe that Macedonia needs elections, that is their business. But I hope that the parliamentary crisis will be resolved through a political dialogue rather than elections,” said Hungarian Ambassador to Macedonia Ferenc Kekesi, whose country currently presides over the EU.
“We are trying to understand the reasons for the boycott of Parliament. There are issues and problems and they need to be discussed but not outside the Parliament,” he said.
Dutch Ambassador Simone Philippini too believes that renewing the political dialogue is of utmost importance now. She says that she cannot say whether there should be early elections in Macedonia.
“At this moment, the most important thing is establishing political dialogue between the opposition and the ruling parties. The concerns raised regarding the legality of the measures pronounced over the past few weeks should also be taken into consideration,” she said.
BDI spokesperson Ermira Mehmeti said that at this moment the most important was creating an atmosphere for normal functioning, which means that the opposition should return to Parliament.
“The responsibility for political dialogue is shared. It is not only of the government or of the opposition, it is of both. Therefore we trust that it is possible to create conditions for the opposition to return to Parliament and ensure dialogue in the institutions,” Mehmeti said, adding that the time should be used for creating a joint platform of all political factors.
“This does not mean that in order to solve the name issue with Greece the format of the government should change. If we assess that all possibilities have been exhausted and no conditions have been created for the return of the opposition, if a position is assumed by consensus that Macedonia needs early elections, we are ready to tackle that challenge too,” Mehmeti said.
However, she does not hold it is good for the elections to overlap with the census.
Asked by a reporter about the possibility of holding early elections, Zoran Stavreski, Deputy Prime Minister and member of the executive committee of VMRO-DPMNE, said: “The bodies of VMRO-DPMNE are analyzing the new situation and no decision to call early elections has yet been taken. If we take such a decision, we will inform you on time.”
SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski said only early elections were the way out of the political and economic crisis, yet added that SDSM was going to boycott the poll if it was held in a non-democratic atmosphere, as the one right now.”
At its Saturday meeting, the central committee of SDSM is going to closely define the conditions on which they would return to Parliament and is going to decide whether the early elections organized by Gruevski’s current government are acceptable.
