Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski told his partners from the coalition “For Better Macedonia” in Skopje Thursday he was ready to accept the term for elections that SDSM was going to propose provided the opposition party stopped the boycott. This means that the early elections could be held in end May or early June. In the meantime, the Parliament is going to work on crating conditions for fair and democratic elections. According to unofficial information, Gruevski explained to his partners that he accepted for the leader of SDSM to set the time of the elections in order to avoid receiving a negative report from Brussels, Dnevnik reports. He reiterated that of all the conditions that the opposition set, two could not be met – unblocking the accounts of Velija Ramkovski’s media for that was a matter of the court and the demand for equitable distribution of budget money for campaigns to all media.
Sources from the meeting say that all preparations for the elections can be finished by the end of March whereupon the Parliament can dissolve. Considering that the election term can be set within 45 and 60 days of the Parliament’s dissolution, the vote may be scheduled from 15 May to early June.
Prime Minister Gruevski was not very specific in his statement after the meeting regarding the election term. He only reiterated that he expected the opposition to return to Parliament and that “he challenged Crvenkovski to elections”.
“SDSM may review the voters’ lists right now. They can invite representatives of the OSCE, the international community, experts, analysts and reporters as well and see that that process is finished.
“We are ready to stop all informative campaigns so they will not be bothered by the fact that at the moment there is no such law as they desire, which does not exist anywhere in the world, and so we can call early parliamentary elections as soon as possible. If SDSM do not come back, we do not rule out early elections even if they boycott them,” Prime Minister Gruevski said.
In his view, the boycott does harm to the country’s image in the eyes of Europe and the world.
“We are not going to allow that. We do not want everything we have done to be discarded only because one man decided to put at risk his own country and his political party for the sake of his personal career,” he added.
SDSM, as party sources say, is preparing a strategy for both boycott and for participation in the early elections. It is for this reason that Branko Crvenkovski’s party has not yet set the date of the party congress, which is going to be scheduled once the term for holding the elections is defined.
If SDSM manages to reach an agreement with the government over the conditions for holding early elections, Crvenkovski is expected to reveal at the congress the name of the new prime minister who would compose the new government if the party wins the elections. Party sources say that Crvenkovski is going to promote the new prime minister before the start of the election campaign to be able to use his trump cards for filling up the difference in the ratings of SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE.
If Crvenkovski and Gruevski fail to agree and reach a compromise about all open issues, SDSM is going to confirm the decision to boycott at the congress. Party sources say that the delegates of SDSM are going to verify the decision of the leadership, thus making the decision more relevant and sending a signal that the party is united.
Unless elections are held as soon as possible, Macedonia is going to lose the recommendation for opening accession talks with the European Union later this year. There have to be elections to stop the agony that Crvenkovski is creating, says Martin Protoger, secretary general of governing VMRO-DPMNE in his interview with Publika.
In his view, the recommendation may be lost because of the parliamentary boycott and possible election boycott by the opposition, whose goal is to save, or better said delay the end of Crvenkovski’s political career.
