site.btaNorth Macedonia on Eve of Election Campaign's Launch

The State Election Commission in North Macedonia announced that a total of 1,832,415 voters are eligible to vote in the upcoming local elections in October, including 112,000 who are temporarily working or residing abroad, 2,162 voters who are in custody or serving prison sentences, and 450 voters residing in nursing homes.

At its meeting on Friday, the State Election Commission finalized the voting register. Of the 3,480 polling stations in the country, 132 have fewer than ten registered voters, so voting there will take place at the nearest polling station.

In the draw held a few days ago to determine the order of the parties, coalitions, and independent candidates, the first nine positions on the ballot were allocated to the parties and coalitions represented in Parliament, positions 10 to 33 are for non-parliamentary parties and coalitions, and the lists of independent candidates will appear on the ballot from positions 34 to 153.

The election campaign in the country officially begins on Monday, but in practice it has been underway for a long time, and at a press conference in front of the Constitutional Court on Friday, the Levica [Left] opposition party  announced that it is the only political force among all parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties that is excluded from the legal advertising packages for the election campaign. Levica leader Dimitar Apasiev said that Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski was personally behind the decision of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services.  

“The scandal is even greater because not only are we being denied state funds [for the media campaign] that we are entitled to by law, but even if we had our own funds, we would not be able to advertise because we have been completely sidelined, as if we do not exist on the political scene,” said Apasiev, who thinks institutions are misinterpreting the Election Code when it comes to how airtime for political ads in the media should be divided up.

"This is a distorted interpretation of Article 75 of the Election Code, which stipulates that the two largest [parliamentary] parties should receive the most [media time in the election campaign], but this does not mean that both should receive everything. They interpret and cling blindly to the word 'both', while we cling to the word 'most', which means that it is possible, but not necessary, for them to receive everything, because the law must adapt to reality, not reality to the law," Apasiev explained.

Levica called on the Constitutional Court to suspend the effect of this decision and warned that if this problem is not resolved, they are considering filing a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights.

Meanwhile, according to the latest telephone survey by the Institute for Political Research - Skopje among 1,000 respondents, 28.1% said that they believe VMRO-DPMNE would receive the most votes in the elections. The data, as reported by the State-owned MRT, also show that 8.8% believe the elections will be won by the National Alliance for Integration, which is the name of the coalition led by the largest Albanian party, the Democratic Union of Integration (DUI). Of respondents, 8.1% said that the coalition of Albanian parties VLEN, a coalition partner in the government, would win the vote, while 4% said the winner would be the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM). Next are Levica, which 2.4% of respondents think would win the local elections, and the ZNAM Movement with 2.3%. 

With varying percentages but in the same order of political forces, respondents answered the question: “Which political option do you think would best address the problems in your municipality?” Of respondents, 23.6% replied VMRO-DPMNE, 9.1% the National Alliance for Integration, 9% VLEN, 4.8% SDSM, 3.1% Levica, and 2.4% the ZNAM Movement.