Almost 90 percent of the election campaign was on the internet, while the contents of the “black campaign” and of an “unknown orderer” were more numerous than the total number of party rallies, gatherings and meetings with citizens, shows the monitoring of the election campaign that CIVIL’s team carried out from June 20 to midnight July 15. The team for monitoring the political party financing of the pre-election activities registered a total of 1.286 party activities and pre—election contents. More than half, 656 or 51 percent, were sponsored contents on the social media, mostly on the social network Facebook. In the campaign, the parties have produced 475 video-contents, from promotional videos, through inserts from shows, to “black campaign” videos, more specifically, defamation of the political opponent. Almost ten percent of the pre-election activities, or 122 activities, are gatherings and rallies or party tribunes. In 90 cases, parties distributed written branded materials, from promotional material at gatherings, to flyers for a black propaganda against the other party. The monitoring recorded also 46 cases of hidden advertising and a campaign “masked” as other contents and 19 cases of paid political advertising outside the legally determined rules, as banners and posters placed “by coincidence” in public places.
In the campaign, which has left the impression of being perhaps the dirties so far, the monitoring team isolated 166 authentic contents intended to slander the political opponent, of which 119 from an unknown orderer. The number of shares of such content is several times higher.
Of a total of 1.286 contents and activities in the campaign, most, a total of 435, were ordered or organized by the political party VMRO-DPMNE. SDSM is in second place with 358 paid contents and activities. Characteristic for this election campaign is that the third “entity”, according to the size of the pre-election activities, is “unknown” – a total of 136 paid contents and activities are from an unknown orderer. Levica follows with 115 contents, the Alliance for Albanians with 107, of which around twenty with Alternativa, DUI with 59, DPA with 10, BESA with 4 and Integra with 3 registered activities.
Of 136 contents from an unknown orderer, most often videos, 119 were intended to slander a party – 95 against SDSM and 24 against VMRO-DPMNE. The rest are for an anonymous promotion of a party – 8 for VMRO-DPMNE, two each for DUI and for SDSM, and the rest one each for the other parties.
In fifty cases the parties have directly and publically opposed their political opponents. VMRO-DPMNE ordered 34 videos or printed material for a black campagn, SDSM in 11 cases, and in two cases the Alliance.
The monitoring also registered six cases in which the parties accused their opponents of vote buying. On June 21, TV Alfa ran a content in which there is talk about supposed vote-buying by SDSM in Prilep. Party activists, using an official van of the state home for the elderly, outside working hours, had loaded bags in one of SDSM’s headquarters in the city. On June 24, the portal “Ekonomski Lider” published an article in which SDSM is accused of vote-buying of voters of Roma nationality in Gostivar on the first day of the campaign. Two photos are published that show people waiting in line to receive some kind of packages, as well as a video in which no abuses can be seen. The article was downloaded by several media outlets. On June 26, the portal “Republika” published an article in which SDSM is accused of “handing out bribes to households” in Gjorche Petrov. A man is photographed carrying a package, as well as a vehicle filled with packages. The article was shown on several other portals.
On June 30, Levica council member in the City of Skopje Dragana Velkovska accused that the City of Skopje in an urgent procedure and without explanation had decided to allocate 20 million denars for reconstruction of a road in the village of Bojane. According to Velkovska, SDSM and DUI’s move was an attempt for bribing voters in the village.
On July 10, the MOI arrested four persons for vote-buying, who were found with promotional materials of a political party and money in their possession. According to the MOI, “In regards to the list found, the person B.T was summoned and during questioning admitted that in the month of May, the Stip Sector of Interior had filed criminal charges in accordance to Article 215 of the Criminal Code, after which the same person addressed the person S.I, who promised to help him if the person B.T provided 20 voters for the political party. Following this promise, B.T made a list, spoke with people from the list and convinced them to vote for this party in order to help him not to go to prison. After this, B.T together with S.I handed over the list of potential voters to the political party”.
On Election Day, July 15, Minister of Interior Nakje Chulev on Facebook posted a case in Stip where police officers from the Sector of Interior searched the home of the person A.M (35), during which they had found and taken away one mobile phone and several sheets of paper from notebooks with a list of about 250 people handwritten with personal data and personal identification numbers of persons from the Roma nationality. According to the MOI, the person had a list in a store, and was promised monetary compensation by a political party if he kept the documents of people who owed him money.
In return, this person was supposed to write off the debts of those people, claims the MOI.
The case was previously published (on July 10), when the MOI announced less details.
Deputy Minister of Interior Slavjanka Petrovska reacted to this on July 11, who claimed that all questioned citizens whose personal documents were found in the store in Stip had stated that their personal documents were not taken because of vote-buying, but because of a debt.
The monitoring registered also two cases of use of public goods for pre-election purposes, namely, two gatherings of citizens organized by the Alliance for Albanians in the villages of Zhelino and Chelopek, which were held in schoolyards.
The use of official vehicles for pre-election activities was registered twice. On June 22, holder of DUI’s candidate list for the fifth constituency, Talat Xhaferi, according to the reports of an observer of CIVIL, appeared at a party meeting with citizens in Rostushe with an official vehicle of the Parliament. On June 29, use of official vehicles for party needs by Minister of Interior Nakje Chulev was registered in the Skopje neighbourhood of Novo Lisice.
Тhe monitoring also noted several cases of promotion of infrastructural projects for pre-election goals, such as the case on July 2, when Teuta Arifi posted on Facebook a sponsored post with information on the start of a municipal project for reconstruction of a primary school in Mala Recica.
A total of 67 events and contents from the election campaign have taken place outside the period provided for this. From June 20 to the end of June 23, before the official start of the campaign on June 24, we registered 20 events, half of which meetings or rallies.
During the election silence, on July 14 and 15, on the other hand, we noticed a total of 47 activities, of which 20 on the day of the voting. All were contents on Facebook, except for two cases of flyers being distributed in Tetovo. Of 47 contents, 27 were videos or inserts from shows. In 9 cases the content was ordered or shared by the Alliance for Albanians, in 6 by VMRO-DPMNE and in 5 by Levica, in 2 by SDSM and one each by Alternativa and DUI. In 23 cases,
the orderer was unknown: 9 times against VMRO-DPMNE, 8 against SDSM and once against DUI. Five contents from an unknown orderer were affirmative – once for DPA and four times for VMRO-DPMNE.
