Macedonian Police To Boost Election Security

Police will monitor its own members as well | Photo by: Macedonian Ministry of Interior

Police Minister Gordana Jankulovska, in a written media statement, said she hopes “the police won't have work” on the June 5 ballot day.

However, she noted that the authorities will prepare for possible problems in advance.

As part of the preparations, Jankulovska said that all who caused trouble in past elections will be identified and their movement monitored.

The police will also tighten security at expected problematic spots and remove members of its own force who have proven inefficient or participated themselves in irregularities during past polls.

“We will not grant some people’s wish for Tunisian or Egyptian scenarios in Macedonia,” Jankulovska wrote, without elaborating.

The statement may be a reply to opposition leader Branko Crvenkovski, who in February and March suggested several times that “not even Tunisia and Egypt will be able to hide [PM Nikola] Gruevski” if he tries to commit election fraud.

Crvenkovski was referring to the two North African countries that were recently caught up in civil unrest that toppled the local regimes.

In a related development, a recent opinion survey commissioned by the country’s most prominent daily, Dnevnik, has suggested that the majority of Macedonians believe the upcoming snap elections will be free.

70 per cent of respondents in the opinion poll, which surveyed 1,602 people, said that they believe they will be able to vote freely on election day, while 25 per cent think that they will face problems.

While over 80 per cent of the ethnic Macedonians expressed confidence that the elections would be free, only 41 per cent of the country’s ethnic Albanians were optimistic.

Ethnic Albanians make up one quarter of Macedonia’s population.

Macedonia witnessed significant election violence during the snap polls in 2008. One man died and several others were injured by gunshot on election day in violence that occurred mainly in ethnic Albanian areas.

Jankulovska was also in charge of the Macedonian Police during those elections.

The country improved its democratic image in the world in the subsequent local and presidential elections in 2009, which passed off in a noticeably more peaceful atmosphere.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe and local NGOs are expected to dispatch about 4,000 election monitors for this year's polls.