The NGOs ask:

How not be deceived at elections? 

Macedonia is still unable to deal with the corruption at the elections. Almost 90 % of the political parties’ activities are financed anonymously. No one knows where their money comes from although once they start ruling thy return their debts. It is very dangerous that the citizens show indifference for these actions and accept them as something normal – were some of the conclusions of the participants at the tribune called: “The elections as a source of corruption”, which is one of the series of roundtables organized by the OHO organization, the occasion being the forth coming election.

Gabriela Konevska, the president of transparency Macedonia thinks that there is a new cycle of corruption staring with each pre- election campaign. New relations are established with the business oligarchy and the anonymous donors, and the existing relations of this kind continue after the election process has finished, Konevska says. As an example she pointed to the VMRO DPMNE and SDSM that although their accounts have been blocked for some time, are running extremely expensive campaigns. According to professor Miodrag Labovikj, from the Police academy in Skopje, the main problem in Macedonia is that the origin of the property is not examined. “The sources of finances political parties use are unknown. If the parties are financed with “dirty” money than the question is: How will they deal with the corruption once they assume the lead over the country, asked Labovikj and added that for the last fifteen years we have been facing electoral deceit, The president of the anti corruption commission, Mihajlo Manevski, has announced fair election since the institutions are prepared to monitor the financing of the campaign objectively.  

Within the series of OHO tribunes on the elections the NGOs have come up with a “pre-election recipe” – “how not to be deceived at the elections”. Their message was – the more massive the elections are, the better chance we have for democratic and fair elections.

“The best chance for fair and democratic elections is the citizens’ response. We do not want a campaign in which parties spit at each other, but one in which they say how they are planning to deal with the problems of poverty, unemployment and corruption”, explained Sasho Klekovski from MCIC. According to him people have high expectations from those they lack trust in. Slagjana Taseva from “Transparency Macedonia” warned the citizens to be careful who they give their votes to.

“Every citizen has to ask herself/himself whether their party had stolen votes or disrupted the election process, said Ibrahim Mehmeti from “Search from Common ground”.

For Darko Aleksov from Most it is important that the parties send the message for a campaign without offences and insults. “The campaign should be followed waiting for the results for the football matches and not the results from the elections”, says Aleksov. He calls for better transparency at the election which should increase the trust of the voters.

 

Z. Gj.