The elections should be held on 26 June; the governing parties should guarantee that non-judicial authorities, such as the Public Revenue Office (PRO), are not going to take any new decisions concerning the accounts of A1 and the papers before the early elections are over; and a law should be passed for even distribution of money to the media in the election period. These are the new proposals that SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski sent Thursday to the three political parties that participated in the meeting in President Ivanov’s office Tuesday, Utrinski vesnik reports.
Crvenkovski said at the press conference that SDSM was sure of the political motives behind the court decision but will respect the decision of the Criminal Council that confirmed that the accounts of these media should stay blocked. However, Crvenkovski believes that after this step, “Gruevski’s argument that he cannot and will not interfere with the judicial decisions, unless Goran Trajkovski has been elected a judge overnight is no longer valid.”
Opposition SDSM still insists on the two demands, which Gruevski initially accepted, referring to the election law and the revision of the voters’ list. So that there are no manipulation regarding the number of accepted demands, Crvenkovski reiterated that the political parties agreed that the composition of the election committee change and that the committees consist of a chairman from the ranks of the civil servants and two representatives of the government and the opposition each.
The political parties also accepted the proposal for making consensual revision of the election units in keeping with the present election law. Crvenkovski reiterated that SDSM withdrew the demand for guaranteed parliamentary seats for the smaller ethnic groups. As for the establishment of a commission to revise the voters’ list, the president of the largest opposition party demands that the term for that activity be 30 days, beginning on the day the opposition returns to Parliament.
Crvenkovski still insists that a law on even distribution of budget money for public campaigns in the media be passed, lets VMRO-DPMNE choose what of the two proposals is more acceptable – to distribute the money equally to all media or according to the televisions’ ratings and papers’ circulation.
After voicing the modified demand about A1 and the three newspapers, Crvenkovski asked: “What is illogical and unreasonable in all of this? What is politically incorrect and unjustified?” and appealed to Gruevski “to show he is for a compromise and elections with the participation of the opposition”. Asked whether the demand relating to the Public Revenue Office meant that a government institution should be paralyzed, Crvenkovski said that if the media on Pero Nakov Street were the PRO’s only activity, over the coming period this institution should be idle.
Crvenkovski said that SDSM was not going to call for a new leaders’ meeting, considering that if Gruevski decides not to accept his latest proposal, he will prove he wants to push the opposition out of the election process.
Ruling VMRO-DPMNE and BDI refused to comment on Crvenkovski’s proposal Thursday. They said they were going to comment Friday. VMRO-DPMNE only said that what SDSM offered was a game. Ilija Dimovski, who said the final decision would be stated by Prime Minister Gruevski upon his return from Brussels, asked whether Crvenkovski’s demand meant that Velija Ramkovski was above the law.
