'Truth' Devices Come to Aid of Macedonian Voters

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski holding his new party election manifesto and a report on his party's fulfilled pledges | Photo by: VMRO DPMNE

A local group in Macedonia has come up with two ingenious devices to help Macedonian voters track and check up on politicians' promises.

Designed to be easy to use, the Metamorphosis foundation says the goal is to increase the accountability and responsibility of parties before the citizens.

The first tool, the Vistinomer.mk [Truth Meter], analyzes the promises that the parties gave at the last election in 2008 and the degree to which they have been since been met.

Each identified promise is evaluated according to its degree of fulfillment: fulfilled, partially fulfilled or unfulfilled.

For example, the truth meter has determined that the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party has kept its promise to institute a campaign against vices such as smoking, alcohol and drugs but has forgotten its promise to start construction of several Olympic-size swimming pools.

The junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, on the other hand, has only partially fulfilled its 2008 promise to introduce technologies for recycling waste.

The truth meter shows that both kept their word when they said they would complete a comprehensive strategy on preservation of the natural environment.

At the moment, the Vistinomer.mk includes only assessments of promises made by the parties in power who thus had a real opportunity to implement their pledges.

“But we plan to keep the tool alive over a longer term,” says Filip Stojanovski, program coordinator at Metamorphosis.  He explained that “after the elections we will monitor the fulfillment of the election promises of whoever wins the 2011 election.”

The second tool, also launched by Metamorphosis, is called the Glasomer [Voice Meter]. It helps people to determine which party has the closest stands to theirs.

It works by allowing users to fill out a simple form and then comparing the results with the views of the various political parties.

Stojanovski says that interest in both tools is growing and that they expect it to rise further as election day approaches.

Metamorphosis is a nonprofit foundation in Skopje that aims to improve the level of information in the country and thus boost the development of democracy.