Macedonian MPs to Pay Dear for Boycotts

A draft law on legislators' work, proposed by the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, is set to cause more controversy between the parties, coming at a time when almost the entire opposition is boycotting parliament.

The provision was submitted to parliament on Wednesday and is to be voted on soon.

“The boycott is an unknown category in democratic countries. In EU countries there are clear rules of play that determine the responsibilities and obligations of legislators,” Silvana Boneva, a VMRO DPMNE deputy, explained.

"Macedonia is the only country where boycotts are used to deliver street ultimatums rather than cause debate," Boneva added.

VMRO DPMNE’s main coalition partner, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, said it was not convinced that the planned change was justified.

Adnan Jashari, a DUI legislator, told Balkan insight that the party would contest the plan by making amendments to the draft law.

“The boycott is a political gesture and is the right of every political party,” Jashari said, “it should not result in penalties.”

The DUI itself boycotted parliament for five months in 2007, when it was in opposition. The party then argued that the government of Nikola Gruevski, the current Prime Minister, was downgrading the rights of ethnic Albanians.

The DUI last month spent a week absent from parliament in protest over the appointment of Dimitar Bogov as National Bank governor. The party said its bigger coalition partner had failed to consult it about the appointment.

Emilijan Stnakovic, from the main opposition Social Democrats, said the plan to penalise absent MPs was a provocative attempt to curb a democratic right.

The Social Democrats quit parliament in late January, accusing the government of quashing democratic freedoms, hampering economic recovery and deliberately keeping the country at arm's length from the EU and NATO.

The proposed amendments come days before the expected dissolution of parliament in preparation for early elections that Prime Minister Gruevski has called for June 5.