During an interview with the “Scrutiny with Landov” podcast, former SDSM official Andrej Petrov revealed that the process by which VenkoFilipche was elected leader of SDSM was controversial. He cited a series of irregularities, identified and documented within the electronic voting system, which included the registration of deceased party members as voters who cast ballots for Filipche’s candidacy.
“There are deceased people who voted. It has been documented. Deceased individuals were marked on the list as having voted,” Petrov stated, adding that “it is based on a verification process; there are more instances. It is likely that even those who marked the ballots were unaware that these individuals had passed away.”
Petrov further noted that a very small number of members, or rather, membership cards, were used in the election of Filipche as SDSM leader. He questioned why the majority of the membership did not come out to vote, concluding that no one within the party ranks truly identifies with him.
“A party that once had 100,000 members, or even 80,000, while in power, cannot end up in a situation where its president is elected by only 9,000 members,” noted the former SDSM mayor of the Skopje municipality of Karposh.
Petrov urged Filipche to resign so that an election for a new SDSM leader could be held. He added that if Filipche were to run again, he would be easily defeated by any of the party’s former key figures, provided, of course, that the voting process does not rely on electronic cards.
“He should resign, a new leader should be elected, and he is free to run, but there is absolutely no chance he would be elected without those electronic cards. If he faces a candidate who was one of the party’s lo