A peaceful election day, a democratic and fair election contest, and a high turnout are the main characteristics of the Presidential Election Day in North Macedonia. The institutions ensured a correct electoral process in which citizens could vote freely. Political parties and presidential candidates had the opportunity to present their programs and concepts to the public unhindered, and the media faced no obstacles in reporting. This is the preliminary assessment of CIVIL on the Presidential Elections that took place on April 24.
CIVIL – Center for Freedom is conducting comprehensive long-term election monitoring of the Presidential and Parliamentary elections, starting from their announcement on February 14.
Special attention in the long-term monitoring of the organization is dedicated to disinformation, hate speech, foreign malign influence, political financing, the media, and respect for legal standards during the election process.
CIVIL conducted monitoring of the Presidential Elections on April 24 with 51 accredited observers. All CIVIL observers are mobile, meaning they visit a larger number of polling stations, and observe the wider region in which they are deployed.
Field monitoring was carried out through mobile short-term observers in Skopje, Kumanovo, Probishtip, Shtip, Kochani, Veles, Kavadarci, Prilep, Bitola, Ohrid, Struga, Kichevo, Tetovo, and Gostivar.
Field observation is conducted in 13 categories (plus “other”), providing complete information about what is happening.
Observers registered more than 60 cases of irregularities during the April 24 vote.
Most of those irregularities were of a technical nature. Specifically, in several cases, there were issues with the malfunction of fingerprint devices or the inability to load individual voters’ data. The election administration successfully managed these technical challenges. However, in two cases, voters gave up voting due to the long wait.
A more serious violation of standards was recorded in about a dozen cases, where individuals from the electoral administration (electoral boards) suggested or exerted influence on voters regarding whom to vote for.
The Ministry of the Interior reported five cases, and CIVIL reported one case of photographing the ballot paper.
Several cases of violating the secrecy of voting, as well as the right to vote, were also registered.
Violation of election silence was observed in several cases, both on the ground and on social networks, and in some media outlets.
Although several suspicions of vote-buying were reported, no evidence of such actions was provided.
CIVIL is preparing a full report with all individual cases and polling stations or locations where electoral irregularities were registered on the day of voting, as well as a comprehensive report from the long-term monitoring.
The full report, along with analysis and recommendations resulting from the monitoring, will be published after the conclusion of the electoral process.
CIVIL is available to the public, institutions, and media for details and observations related to the presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as for all other issues related to democratic processes.
For the parliamentary elections on May 8, CIVIL will deploy around 100 accredited observers.
CIVIL
