The Government approved 315 million denars, or some 5 million euros, for the implementation of the early parliamentary elections. The Government said that in keeping with the decision for dissolving Parliament and calling early elections to be held on 5 June 2011, a decision has been taken for approving 315 million denars from this year’s budget.
“The money will be used for carrying out of the activities of the early parliamentary elections,” the Government said.
The State Election Commission (DIK) had previously requested of the Ministry of Finance 6.6 million euros, or 1.6 million euros more from the amount of the previous parliamentary elections. Some 1.1 million euros have been planned for the first ever vote of the diaspora. This money includes costs for daily allowances of the 10 members of the committees at the 50 embassies and consulates, costs for their stay, transport, visas and other activities. DIK’s account will be controlled by two authorized signatories and not just one as has so far been the case. Both the president and the vice president of DIK will have access to the election account.
In the meantime, the State Election Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot agree which one of them should decide the manner in which the public calls for vote for the Macedonians in Greece and China should be published considering these two countries refused to publish the ads in the Macedonian language too as the election law stipulates.
“The law clearly states that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should carry out the vote abroad. DIK completed its part of the responsibilities,” DIK president Boris Kondarko said.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that it is DIK that should decide the format of the public advertisement in these two countries. In all other countries the announcement of the advertisements is going according to plan. An ad was published Tuesday in Germany in the paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. As Radio Deutsche Welle reported, the announcement informs the Macedonian citizens with temporary residence in Germany about the procedure they have to honor if they wish to use their right to vote on 4 June, a day before the elections in Macedonia. The announcement says that the polling stations will be opened from 7.00 to 19.00 hrs and that the Macedonian citizens that wish to vote will have to fill in a voting form by 5 May and report with the polling stations, that is to say, the Embassy in Berlin and the Consulate General in Munich or its office in Berlin.
“The voting form is a way to check again if they are on the separate lists of Macedonian citizens abroad. If they are not on those lists, there is another form they should fill in to be put on the lists. They will have to provide these forms to the representative offices of Macedonia in Germany so that they can exercise their right to vote on 4 June,” Macedonian Ambassador Kornelija Utevska-Gligorvska told Deutsche Welle.
