CIVIL: Citizens, do not be afraid to vote!

Press release, press conference in front of the SEC, December 9, 13.00h

Macedonia is welcoming the elections with a complete disaster in the Voters Register. Following all field and cross checks, “phantoms” still figure on the Voters Register, whereby the chaos is accompanied with mass disappearance of citizens who until now were not disputable and still existed in the list until it was closed. They have been living on the same address and voting at the same voting station for years.

In the period between December 5 – December 8 alone, CIVIL received over 600 calls from citizens, worried whether they would have the opportunity to use their right to vote at the early parliamentary elections!

CIVIL is demanding responsibility from the State Election Commission (SEC) in regards to the missing voters who, simply with no fault of theirs, have “disappeared” from the Voters Register, more precisely, they have been deleted and brought to a situation of not being able to realize their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.

The chaos in the electronic list of voters and the partisanship of the SEC, must not be a reason for yet another election manipulation with the will of the citizens.

CIVIL is demanding from the SEC and the Municipal Election Commissions and Election Boards to allow all voters with valid documents to vote. CIVIL is sending an open message to the Election Boards, Municipal Election Commissions and to the SEC – for them to strictly adhere to and implement the laws and electoral procedures, and to appropriately inform the voters, especially if they have “disappeared” from the lists.

If members of the Election Boards determine that a voter does not figure in the Voters Register, then they have to refer that person to the regional office of the SEC, in order to check the website www.izbirackispisok.gov.mk if that person is registered in the Voters Register, and in which voting station he/she can vote. To enable those having valid documents, but who have been completely deleted, to vote accordingly with a maximally broad interpretation of the Electoral Code.

CIVIL is once again emphasizing that it is strictly forbidden to blackmail or intimidate voters. Unfortunately, pressures have continued on voters, even to the last day of the campaign!

Since the beginning of the second week of the election campaign, CIVIL has received over 100 reports from all over the Republic of Macedonia. In total, in the period from November 21 to December 8, CIVIL received more than 170 cases of pressures, threats, abuses and other categories of irregularities, not counting the reports concerning the problems with the Voters Register.

CIVIL demands an immediate stop to the intimidations, blackmail, pressures and vote buying. CIVIL guarantees anonymity to all citizens who will report irregularities, and encourages them to immediately report any irregularities and abuses. We urge voters to freely go out to vote at the elections on December 11, because no one can violate or usurp their right – to freely express their will on who should lead Macedonia in the following period.

CIVIL is urging political parties to respect the laws and the rules for fair and democratic, free elections. We ask all participants in the election process to help for the elections to be carried out in a peaceful and in a democratic atmosphere, without violence!

We demand for the electoral silence to be respected, and for the media on election day to report – with no favoring, correctly and objectively. We especially urge for there to be no hate speech or calls for violence.

CIVIL is also calling for observers to perform their duties correctly and to inform the Macedonian public about any irregularities noticed and violation of the rights of voters.

In order to enable all citizens to realize their voting right, CIVIL urges employers to allow their employees working on Sunday to get out from work to go to vote, and requests the election boards to ease the access for people with disabilities to the voting stations.

Taking into consideration the lack of transparency in the financing of the campaigns of the political parties, CIVIL urges for complete and detailed financial reports to be made available to the public, and implementation of real supervision, in order to have knowledge on the sources of financing of the political parties, the amounts and on what those funds have been spent.

The public has the right to know!

The state has the obligation to respect and protect the right to vote!

Those who are responsible for election irregularities and impeding the election process need to be held responsible!