Turkey- Disputes create doubt over Macedonia election date

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Some members of Macedonian Electoral Commission the DIK are disputing their chief's assessment that the country cannot organize credible elections by April 24 the date for early polls that was initially set in the EU-brokered agreement to end the crisis but has now become the subject of dispute. Over the weekend the head of the DIK Aleksandar Cicakovski told the EU mediator in the inter-party crisis talks Peter Vanhoutte that elections on April 24 could only be carried out "technically" and that for truly credible polls more time was needed. But commission members Suphi Jakupi and Saso Srcev are disputing this assessment saying it was only Cicakovski's personal view. "He usurped the DIK and broke the regulations. The commission neither discussed nor adopted such conclusion" Srcev told media.

He said he was convinced that "we have the capacity and conditions to carry out the parliamentary elections on April 24". The conflicting opinions inside the commission reflect disagreements between the government and the opposition regarding the date of the elections.

Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE ruling party head Nikola Gruevski and the two leading ethnic Albanian parties are backing the original April 24 election date as envisaged in the EU-brokered political crisis agreement that was reached last summer. But the opposition Social Democrats leader Zoran Zaev has insisted his party will not agree to holding the polls in April unless the electoral roll is checked for fake voters and media freedom is ensured. Zaev's partyinsists that most reforms agreed in the agreement brokered by the EU to end Macedonia’s long-running political crisis have not been fully implementedor have only formally been addressed even though the deadlines for doing so have long passed. On Fridayvisiting European Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn failed to broker a dealon this issue during his marathon talks with the leaders of the four main political parties.

After his visit Hahn's office clarified his stance saying in a written statement to Macedonian media that "the essence and the content of the political process stemming from the Przino [summer crisis] agreement is more important... than a dogmatic approach to election date". Announcing that Hahn would soon visit the country again his office suggested that Macedonia’s leaders agree another election date to ensure that all relevant political parties participate in the polls. "For Hahn it is important to clean the voters' list and provide level playing field in media so that there is equal media possiblity for all participants in the elections to present their platforms and citizens to have access to correct and objective information" the statement sent to Alsat M TV said. According to the deadlines inthe EU brokered agreement parliament should haveelected a new interim governmentled by the ruling VMRO DPMNE party secretary general Emil Dimitriev by last Friday. Due to the failure of the leaders to agree on the election date this did not happen. The political crisis in Macedonia escalated in February last year when opposition leader Zoran Zaev started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes claiming they showed that Gruevski was behind the illegal surveillance of some 20000 people including ministers. Zaev insisted that the tapes contain incriminating evidence against many senior officials including proof of high-level corruption the government grip’s on the judiciary prosecution businesses and media politically-motivated arrests and jailings electoral violations and even an attempted cover-up of a murder of a young man by a police officer. Gruevski who has held power since 2006 insists the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition to destabilise the country.