CIVIL continues to publish parts of the monitoring report of the Referendum, which was held on September 30, when citizens voted “for” or “against” accepting the Agreement between Macedonia and Greece. In this text, we reflect on the category “Observers”, who were also in the focus of CIVIL’s attention.
There were a total of 12.897 domestic observers, from 10 associations, and 492 foreign observers from 23 organizations, from which the ODIHR mission was the most numerous, with 326 observers. Among the foreign non-governmental organizations, the accreditation of the World Macedonian Congress is notable, with a total of 167 accredited observers. A total of 118 journalists from 46 media outlets from across the region and worldwide requested accreditation from the State Election Commission, while a dozen others did not, but performed their journalist work continuously throughout the entire process.
On the list of domestic observers there were also already known organization who have observed for years before, such as CIVIL and MOST, but some new “players” also emerged in the monitoring. Hence, the Association for civic policies and initiatives EDULSJ appeared for the first time with a remarkable number of 5,574 accredited observers, and the Union of associations of citizens “Macedonian platform against poverty” – MPAP also showed a great number with 4,705 accredited observers. The Association DSP Lenka accredited 129 observers, while the Association for affirmation of human values and youth integration MAK-Sonce had 119 observers. MOST observed the process with 1,902 observers.
Furthermore, CIVIL publishes findings from the monitoring of the mobile observers with a focus on the work of the observers.
Among the reports of CIVIL’s observers, during the day of the referendum, in addition to the irregularities related to the Electoral Board and electoral material, party initiatives, there were also many irregularities precisely from the observers.
In many cases, from the reports of CIVIL’s observers, various examples of irregularities can be noted, such as not carrying badges for identification and authorizations from the State Election Commission, and in a dozen noted cases, the observers did not know from which association they were coming from.
On the very day of the referendum, on September 30, our observers from the Municipality of Butel testified to extremely improper behavior of an accredited observer from a non-governmental organization. According to the report, it concerns a situation in which an elderly voter had kindly asked where a given polling station was located. The observer’s answer was: “Go ask Zaev where it is…Vote at the cemeteries…”, which was followed with
obscene words. CIVIL reacted immediately with a repeated appeal for the observers to act decently and to strictly adhere to the the Electoral Code and the Code for conduct for observers.
At polling station 2176, in an Employment Bureau, in Veles, an observer of the Association of civic policies and initiatives EDULSJ had appeared drunk at a polling station and disturbed voters, observers and the Electoral Board.
An observer from the Municipality of Aerodrom reported to CIVIL that in the kindergarten “Buba Mara”, in polling station 2723, an observer who had presented himself as coming from the Parliament of Republic of Macedonia, had been spreading propaganda and developing a discussion with the Electoral Board on how the name would be sold.
In Demir Hisar, the village of Slepce, polling station 635, an observer sat with a list in front of the polling station and took note of the voters. A police officer had also been present there, who according to our observer, had not reacted at all. The observer had been asking the citizens if they voted and how they voted.
In Aerodrom, in kindergarten Pcela, a report came from CIVIL’s observers that observers had agitated and had been asking people passing by if they had voted.
A domestic observer, for whom it could not be determined from which organization he was coming from, had taken pictures in polling station 2479 in the primary school “Grigor Prlicev” in Gazi Baba.
In Strumica, in primary school “Marsal Tito”, a citizen had been carrying voters with an automobile and entering the polling station with them, where he suggested to them how to vote, and was marked as an observer.
In Probistip, in polling station 15410, an observer had agitated, behaved indecently inside and out of the polling station.
During the counting of the votes in Probistip, in polling station 1533, an observer had been talking on the phone.
CIVIL also received several reports that the names and last names of voters coming to vote had been read out loud and written down by other observers.
Hence, in Bitola, in polling station 192, an observer had loudly read the name of the voter several times.
In Kicevo, in polling station 735, in the primary school “Sande Sterjoski”, an observer had been clearly expressing her position, and said herself that she had been calling members of her party to go to vote. She also asked our observer from which party both she and her family were, which is completely against the law. CIVIL – Center for Freedom observed the process long-term, with more than 130 mobile and regional observers, and observed the day of the voting in a standard extent – with 307 mobile observers.
At this electoral process, CIVIL notes the highest number of observers acting against the Code of conduct and the Electoral Code.
