Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Sunday that some political parties, aware of the defeat in the upcoming parliamentary elections, are afraid and therefore are trying to boycott the adoption of the amendments to the Electoral Code.
PM Mickoski, asked about Saturday’s meeting in Parliament regarding the possibility of adopting the Electoral Code and bringing the positions of the political parties closer together, stressed that after the meeting he’s less and less optimistic about this issue.
“It’s quite clear that among those political parties, aware of the defeat in the upcoming parliamentary elections, there is fear and they are trying to boycott the process so that we do not deliver ten out of ten indicators from the Reform Agenda. Nine out of ten will be there, and the only one left is the Electoral Code. We do not want it to be carried under a European flag (fast-tracked procedure), nor for the entire process to be somehow forced. We thought we were dealing with mature and responsible people who care about the country’s future, but it’s obvious that party interests, the party political swamp, financial interests and some other interests are before and above all else, we cannot help here, but after yesterday’s meeting I’m less and less optimistic,” said Mickoski.
The prime minister noted that yesterday as a political party they clearly expressed the position that the diaspora vote is something that represents a strategic goal for them.
On the other hand, the PM added, some of the political parties came out with completely radicalized positions.
“One position was to vote within the State Election Commission by consensus, something that is not acceptable to us. That is a position that someone is putting forward so that there is no agreement. Secondly, the political party Levica came out with a request for more funds for the campaign, that is, to have more money for advertising, as well as to have one electoral unit, you know the requests from SDSM and so on. Our position is clear. They want more money? Fine, let there be less for us and more for them. We agree to that. We also agree to have one electoral district. We are ready to accept all the requests made by SDSM and SDSM’s coalition partners. There’s no problem,” said PM Mickoski.
