Macedonia Prosecution Vows to Probe Voting Scandal

Prosecutor Ljupco Svrgovski says he is awaiting evidence from the TV

A1 TV station has aired recordings of telephone conversations that it says proves that Macedonia's ruling party is resorting to illegal methods to win the June 5 general elections.

The television station, known for its pro-opposition stance, said the recordings show civil servants have been ordered to submit lists of people who will vote for the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party in exchange for retaining their posts or gaining other favours.

A1 journalists posed as surveyors from a VMRO-DPMNE call centre. In that guise, they called several civil servants, asking to check whether they had submitted names of voters that the party could rely on in the election.

The TV aired some of the phone conversation recordings in its news bulletin.

“Can you guarantee that these people will vote for us?” the journalists ask one man who says he works for the health fund.

Another woman contacted by the A1 journalists as part of the investigation says that she can vouch “1,000 per-cent” that all 15 people she has listed will vote for the ruling party. She says that her superior at work gave her the form on which she marked the voters' names.

“This was for my daughter’s employment,” another woman explains, adding: “She works in a school.”

“We will ask for the lists that contain names so that we can analyze them and determine their authenticity,” Macedonia's chief prosecutor, Ljupco Svrgovski, told Balkan Insight.

“We will also ask the relevant institutions to reveal the identity of the people on the audio recordings,” Svrgovski added.

“They will be called to give statements so that we can determine whether their right of free determination has been violated”.

The TV station said it had overwhelming evidence to show this practice was not just an isolated case. It said it will submit all its materials to the prosecution today.

The ruling party accused A1 of fabricating the whole affair together with the opposition Social Democrats.

On Tuesday, VMRO-DPMNE announced it could sue the A1 journalists who participated in the investigation.

The TV station has yesterday submitted its findings to domestic and international election monitors and to the US and EU embassies in Skopje.