The number of pardoned prisoners this year is higher than the total number of pardoned prisoners in the last three years! Namely, 24 prisoners were pardoned in 2015, in 2014 Ivanov pardoned 53 people, and 51 people in 2013. It is true that in election year 2011 Ivanov really did pardon 85 people before the national holiday of Ilinden, however, this year he has outdone himself.  

Is it a coincidence that the President decided to be 10 times more generous towards the prisoners and pardon 207 people precisely in election year 2016?

The explanation of the President’s cabinet states that this year the list of prisoners proposed for amnesty, which they receive from the prisons, was the longest, but according to information presented on TV Telma, the largest prison Idrizovo have said that just like every year, this year as well, they had proposed 150 people.

For the purpose of eliminating all doubts that still remain even after the denial of his cabinet, we believe that crimes, for which the pardoned prisoners had been convicted, should be published.

Driven by media doubts caused by this decision, CIVIL – Center for Freedom is asking Ivanov:

Must his actions always be accompanied with controversies? Is he concerned about the fact that the citizens and the media are brought into a position in which they are starting to believe that he, as a president in his second term, could perhaps even pardon a pedophile or the person convicted for the murder of Martin Neskovski? Despite the denial of Ivanov’s cabinet, according to which these people have not been pardoned, the television story that was published and the questions that were raised in public, speak of Ivanov’s shaken credibility.

The President must not forget that every decision he makes creates an impression and builds public perception of the President, of the function that will be inherited by someone else after the end of his term. The next president will need a long time to restore the rating and the trust in the work and the role of the President of Macedonia, as an independent symbol of national unity.

CIVIL – Center for Freedom demands from President Ivanov an explanation in regards to the huge increase in the number of people that were pardoned right before elections!

Has President Ivanov, with this procedure as well of pardoning two hundred prisoners, joined the party campaign of departing Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski?