There’s room for talks with the opposition over a date for early parliamentary election before the state of emergency is declared over, in the coming week or so, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said Tuesday.
“But, if no solution is found until then, we will have to respect the constitutional provisions and the legal deadlines and to vote in election,” he told a news conference. SDSM at yesterday’s leaders’ meeting, hosted by President Stevo Pendarovski, tabled June 21 as possible election date.
We, Zaev said, want to be flexible and we want the opposition to take part. He said June 21 is not definitive, but insisted that election should be held as soon as the epidemic started easing.
“We want dialogue and we want an agreement, but if there’s no agreement, we cannot force anyone else to be part of the election,” Zaev stated, noting that election should be held ‘because it is stipulated by the law, by the decree with the force of law and the Electoral Code.’
According to the leader of the ruling party, parties cannot boycott the election. “The lists of MP candidates were accepted and the State Election Commission had already held drawing lots,” Zaev said.
SDSM, he added, got support for elections to be held June 21 from DUI, DPA and Besa. Alliance for Albanians and Alternativa are in favor of a July 26 election date, while the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE put forward August 23, August 30 or September 6. Later, September 13 was also proposed because of the extended weekend.
Answering a reporter’s question, Zaev said the opposition “must not boycott the elections” because it has already agreed to hold them. For the second time in two days, the SDSM leader is threatening to schedule elections on June 21st, regardless of the views of other political factors.
