Macedonia: New Anti-Corruption Chief Named

The political scientist Ilmi Selami, who is also advisor to the defence minister, garnered the most votes from the commission members.

“We will continue with the same pace of work and we will try to better ourselves in the areas where we think that we can do more and that were also noted in the European Commission reports,” he told media after his election. Selami was previously a member of the commission.

The controversy surrounding the election of a new head of Macedonia’s Anti-Corruption Commission became increasingly  heated over the past two weeks, with some saying it threatened to jeopardize the integrity of the institution.

After failing to summon a session for the election of a new head for over one month, the former president of the commission, Mirjana Dimovska, today appeared at the meeting that had been arranged by the other members. However, she avoided reporters.

Dimovska, whose third consecutive one year term as head ended last month, will remain a member of the commission until 2012.

After a heated parliamentary discussion earlier this month, the ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE MPs spared Dimovska from a dismissal motion filed by the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM.

The SDSM claimed that the anti-corruption leader had no moral credibility to ask for a fourth term in office and added that her actions in the past few years have shown that she is subject to the will of the ruling majority.

They accused her of turning a blind eye to the shady businesses of certain government officials and those close to them.