State top officials, institutions, political parties, NGO’s and experts will be speaking at CIVIL’s big conference on election reforms

A total of 32 speakers have been confirmed for the Conference Election Reforms: Macedonian Elections Perspectives, while the number of registered participants is continuously growing, informs CIVIL’s Communication team. The Conference will be opened by the President of the Republic of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski and the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Thomas Gerberich.

On behalf of the Government, given that at the same time he will be participating in the UN session, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev will address the Conference with a video message. Renata Deskoska from SDSM,  Minister of Justice, will speak about the reform steps in the area of the electoral system. Damjan Mancevski from SDSM will follow, otherwise current Minister of Information Society and Administration, as well as Goran Milevski from LDP, Minister of Local Self-Government. Leaders or senior epresentatives of political parties will speak on behalf of the political parties, such as the Alliance for Albanians, Alternative, Besa, DOM, NSDP, PCER, GDU, Democrats and others. VMRO-DPMNE and DUI are among the parliamentary parties from which there is neither a positive, nor negative reply.

“We believe that it is important for the entire public to be involved in the reforms of the electoral system. We are making a public call to VMRO-DPMNE, DUI and DPA and other political parties to respond to the invitation, even if it is negatively” – urges Xhabir Deralla, President of CIVIL, who will be the moderator of the event.

CIVIL has invited relevant experts and representatives of civil society and of the international community. Among speakers are also Aleksandar Krzalovski, MCIC, Darko Aleksov, MOST, Aleksandar Novakovski, expert on electoral reforms, Katica Nikolovska from the SCPC, as well as university professors Neda Maleska Sacmaroska, Jasna Bacovska, Vlado Buckovski, Mersel Biljali and others. The interest of several mayors to participate at the Conference should also be noted, as well as people from informal and formal civic initiatives.

The Conference will be held in Skopje, at Hotel Continental (Crystal Hall), today, starting at 12 noon. CIVIL emphasizes that leaders of political parties have been invited regardless of whether it is a big or small political party, whether it is represented in the current composition of the Parliament or is a non-parliamentary party. “For us, there are no big or small parties, for us they are all equally important” – is said from CIVIL.

At the Conference, discussions will be held on the need of reforms in the overall electoral system, and will more specifically address topics related to the Electoral Code, electoral model, Voters Register, political financing and the media and elections. Participants at the Conference will try to give replies to questions on whether reforms in the electoral process are possible, how and in what time frame.

According to the Agenda, following the opening of the presentation, senior representatives and representatives of political parties and of the Government will speak, which is followed by a short break. Non-governmental organizations, experts, civic initiatives are next on the agenda, whereas time is provided in the last segment of the agenda for a discussion by all participants. Participation is possible by filling out an application or based on a direct invitation from CIVIL.