It's a shame that the internet is a virtual medium, because there are a lot of people out there that I'd like to express my deep feelings of friendship to, and having spent the last two years here in Serbia, I'd like to do it in a truly Serbian way.
Election Violence Concerns in Macedonia
Sinisa | 19 March 2009 |
The committee cites the latest OSCE report on the election campaign that notes that pressure put on administration workers to vote for the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, badly organised local election bodies, and unbalanced media coverage do not bode well for a good assessment of the elections.
“In this kind of atmosphere there is a real possibility of the kind of incidents seen in last year’s general election”, the committee notes.
Last year’s general elections were marred with violence and fraud in the ethnic Albanian populated areas of the country. This sparked negative reports from election monitors and criticism from the west, including the EU.
The committee highlights several potentially weak areas where irregularities could occur. It notes that several ethnic Albanian villages on the northern border with Kosovo have threatened to boycott the election if the heads of the local election committees there are ethnic Macedonians.
The committee also warns of tensions in the country’s south eastern town of Strumica where “there is a real war going on” between the mayoral candidates of the ruling VNRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats, it says.
The committee also says it is not optimistic about police announcements of tightened security during election day and harsh penalties for election violence given that many of last year’s irregularities were done by policemen, only a few of which ended up in court.
In its written address to the public, the outgoing Macedonia president Branko Crvenkovski Wednesday urged the nation to do everything for a democratic election.On March 22 and April 5 the country elects head of state and municipality mayors.
If the election goes well the country hopes it will restore its democratic image and subsequently get a date for start of its EU accession talks.
