The OSCE office starts the observation mission for the elections in North Macedonia

2024-03-21 16:09:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The OSCE office starts the observation mission for the elections in North

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched on Thursday the mission to observe the April 24 presidential elections and the May 8 parliamentary elections in North Macedonia.

The head of the ODIHR, Canadian Ambassador Jillian Stirk, said the mission's job is to oversee whether the elections are in line with OSCE commitments and other international obligations, as well as local legislation.

"For the first time in North Macedonia we will monitor double elections, presidential and parliamentary. We will analyze the two processes separately, and then we will come out with a preliminary report on the course of the process, while the final report will be presented two months after the elections", said Stirk.

The mission will consist of 12 international experts from 12 OSCE member countries. In addition to a core team, there will also be a group of long-term observers of a total of 20 people, who will be distributed in several cities.

Stirk said that, because it is about double elections, the mission has also requested 300 short-term observers who should come immediately before the elections.

Asked about the request of the Democratic Union for Integration, which is part of the government, for a larger number of international observers due to the so-called "danger of tensions", the head of the mission said that this depends on the assessments on the ground.

"The number of monitors depends on the recommendations of the mission on the assessment of the needs for following the electoral process", she emphasized.

Meanwhile, regarding the election process in North Macedonia, the non-governmental organization "Civil" has come out with evaluations, accusing the institutions of not respecting the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR regarding the right to vote. This organization claims that several thousand citizens, mostly with disabilities, are not on the voter lists, and has raised concerns about the spread of hate speech.

"Since the beginning of 2024, we have registered over 3,000 cases of hate speech, as well as 200 cases of various misinformation on social networks... We are dealing with two groups that use different forms for labeling political opponents. A part of the political subjects, although not always directly, manifest their clear anti-Western orientation through continuous discrediting narratives and strategically important processes that support the Euro-Atlantic orientation of the country", said Xhabir Deralla, from the non-governmental organization "Civil ".

Seven candidates will participate in the presidential elections in North Macedonia.

The ruling Social Democratic League will compete with the current president, Stevo Pendarovski, while the opposition VMRO DPMNE will compete with the current deputy Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, who was also a candidate for president in the 2019 elections.

Two Albanians will also participate in the election race. The Democratic Union for Integration will compete with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bujar Osmani, while the united Albanian opposition will compete with Arben Taravar, the current mayor of Gostivar. Part of the race will also be Biljana Vankovska, candidate of the "Left" party, Maksim Dimitrievski, the mayor of the municipality of Kumanovo, Stev?e Jakimovski, the mayor of the municipality of Karpoš in Skopje.

The latter on March 18 was blacklisted in the US for corrupt practices, including using his official position to interfere in urban development and procurement processes to benefit himself and his associates, according to the US State Department. / Rel