Incidents mar Macedonian election campaign

28/06/2006

Macedonia is under international pressure to show it can conduct elections that are free of irregularities. But the campaign is off to a rocky start, due to a series of recent incidents.

By Marina Stojanovska for Southeast European Times in Skopje -- 28/06/06

US Ambassador to Macedonia Gillian Milovanovic (centre), EU Ambassador Erwan Fouere (left) and OSCE mission head Carlos Pais appeal for campaign violence to cease. [Tomislav Georgiev]

Violent incidents involving rival parties in Macedonia have brought sharp warnings from international officials and are threatening to derail the country's effort to show it can conduct "110 per cent free and fair elections", as NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer recently put it.

Most of the clashes have occurred between supporters of the two main ethnic Albanian parties -- the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) and the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA). However, at least one case involved activists from the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE.

If the violence does not abate, there will be consequences for Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic bid, warned US Ambassador Gillian Milovanovic. On Tuesday (27 June), she and EU representative Erwan Fouere -- together with British Ambassador Robert Dickson and OSCE representative Carlos Pais -- paid a visit to the village of Rasce, the scene of a shooting Saturday.

"In spite of the difficult start there is still enough time left for things to improve in the process. We came to the scene of the incident to declare our disappointment with the impossibility or lack of willingness in the ranks of the political parties regarding the termination of the incidents," Milovanovic said.

"The parties that have failed to stop these incidents are behaving carelessly towards the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia. They put in jeopardy the future of the state," she added.

Dutch Ambassador to Macedonia Frederique de Man, meanwhile, said the elections could still get a passing mark if the voting itself is peaceful and incident-free.

"The incidents are horrible," she said. "I am very concerned and very sad because I hoped that after everything happening last year it was clear that there is no place for a correction exam after the elections … I hope that the day of the elections will be orderly so that we can declare these elections fair and democratic ones."

The interior ministry has pressed charges in 12 cases -- seven for criminal acts and five for violations. At the same time, the ministry appealed to citizens not to put police under pressure, and called on the parties not to try to present themselves as victims.

More than 2,600 candidates are running for the 120 parliamentary seats up for grabs in the 5 July election. Campaigning started on 15 June.