site.btaNorth Macedonia's Local Elections to Be Held Amid Polarized Political Environment - OSCE Report

Issues of national identity and ethnic representation have dominated the election campaign in North Macedonia so far, according to an interim report of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election observation mission in the country, local media reported. Local elections will be held in North Macedonia on October 19, with voters about to elect the mayors and councils of 80 municipalities and the City of Skopje.

The report covers the period from September 5 to October 1 and points out that the political environment remains polarized, including along ethnic lines, characterized by public dissatisfaction with institutions at all levels and perceptions of widespread corruption remaining prevalent.

The report further reads that local elections are primarily regulated by the Constitution, the Electoral Code, and subsidiary acts of the State Election Commission (SEC), but most of the recommendations previously made by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which is part of OSCE, have not been implemented.

The report further states that the Constitutional Court struck down provisions on supporting signatures for independent candidates, and the SEC regulated this aspect by requiring only two signatures after Parliament failed to fill the legal gap. Legal provisions for political advertising in the media, including online, and for outdoor advertising structurally disadvantage independent candidates and non-parliamentary parties and exclude certain parliamentary parties.

The international observers point out that in their meetings in North Macedonia, they have expressed concerns about the significant number of voters who do not live in their permanent place of residence but abroad, which could affect the transparency and credibility of the electoral process. 

According to a SEC announcement, the Centralised Electoral Register in North Macedonia contains approximately 1.83 million citizens with voting rights, of whom approximately 1.72 million are permanent residents of the country.

The report also notes discrepancies in the way that space is allocated for political advertising. For instance, the Electoral Code regulates access to political advertising in outdoor spaces, allocating 80% of the available space equally to the two main parties of the parliamentary majority and the two main opposition parties, 10% to parliamentary parties without a parliamentary group, and 10% to non-parliamentary parties and independent candidates. Under this formula, smaller parties with a parliamentary group are not entitled to a share of outdoor advertising space. The ODIHR observers noted that this arrangement disadvantages non-parliamentary parties and independent candidates.

The interim report also addresses the issue of the Levica Party, which has a parliamentary group of six MPs but does not receive funding from the campaign budget. The case is cited as an illustration of the structural limitations in the regulation of media advertising, which create unequal conditions between political participants and reduce competition in the electoral process.