In Valandovo a voter has been caught taking a photo of his ballot, reported one of our observers. The police have intervened.
There is unallowed pressure on voters and violation of the electoral silence. Voters are receiving telephone calls from party headquarters around the country. Several of our observers have received this information from around the country. It is harassment of voters and unallowed pressure on the electorate.
Abuse of public resources for party purposes are noted in several places across the country, such as the case with the vehicle of Macedonian Forests in the village of Ljuboten.
Several cases have been noted of voters being registered by administration employees or party activists standing near the voting stations.
Threats were addressed to an observer of ours in the headquarters of one of the political parties in a Skopje village. Party activists were tendentiously speaking loudly – “Is this CIVIL’s observer? Let’s throw him in the channel!”.
The State Election Commission is responsible because certain members of the Electoral Boards do not understand the procedures, and are even hindering the election process.
A significant number of citizens will simply not be able to realize their right to vote, because they do not figure on the Voters Register and also because there are many changes in the voting stations, without timely and visible information.
We demand from the SEC and the Municipal Election Commission to immediately contact the Electoral Board and to ask them to allow us to do our job and to respect the Electoral Code, as well as to ensure secrecy of voting.
Here is a selection of cases that have been noted by CIVIL’s observers who have been on the ground since 6:30 this morning.
A member of the Electoral Board voted publicly at his voting station and then provoked our observer with the question “Are you noting this too?”, which is contrary to the principles of vote secrecy.
At voting station 2447/2 in the school of “Ibe Palikuka” in Saraj, an observer from a political party sat in place of an Electoral Board member and was searching the list to see who had voted. The same party observer called CIVIL’s observer and pressured him.
Vote secrecy is also not gurenteed in several voting stations in the Minicipality of Aerodrom, where the screens are placed too close to each other.
Public roll call of voters has been noted in Prilep.
In Lipkovo, an observer of a political party stood next to the Electoral Board and was telling the members of the EB what to do, whereby they accepted his suggestions.
Voting on behalf of another person is registered in the Skopje village of Brnjarci, at voting station 2332.
The Electoral Board at voting station 2904 in the Municipality of Butel removed an accredited observer of CIVIL without any explanation. The observer was told to leave the voting station just as soon as he had arrived, and to the question on why he was being removed he was answered with only one word: “Because!”
The authorizations of CIVIL’s observers have been taken away in several cases, while in one case, at the voting station 2840, our observer’s authorizations were photographed.
According to our observers and calls from citizens, there are no cases of violence.
Yesterday there were cases of pressures on voters, bribery and violation of the electoral silence in more than 120 cases reported by CIVIL’s observers, as well as from citizen journalists.
