From the reports of CIVIL’s monitoring team in regards to the irregularities in the election process, it is obvious that party representatives and their activists are active in encouraging election irregularities.
This category contributed in various ways towards the election irregularities, including: violation of election silence, vote-buying, threats and pressures, violation of secrecy of voting, obstruction of the work of observers and etc.
CIVIL received a dozen reports regarding violation of election silence, both on the social networks and on the ground.
In regards to the violation of the election silence on the social networks, we point out the case that was reported by an observer of ours concerning a list carrier in the Municipality of Butel, from the political party Alliance for Albanians, who on October 14 posted a photo on his Facebook profile calling for people to vote for number 9.
Furthermore, we received a report from a citizen that in the Municipality of Aerodrom, on Blvd. Avnoj, entrance 46, and probably in the surrounding buildings, they had received flyers from VMRO-DPMNE in their mailboxes in which it says “The new era begins, a new morning, new victories, sincerely and faithfully yours, Nikola Gruevski”.
In addition, cases were reported to CIVIL related to vote-buying. CIVIL’s observer reported about the case in the Municipality of Shuto Orizari, primary school “Brakja Ramiz I Hadid”.
After two women had realized their right to vote, they were greeted by another person in the school yard, who gave them 500 denars each.
Election irregularities, incited by party activists, have also been noted in the category threats and pressures. An observer of CIVIL, who participated in the counting of votes in polling station 1017/1,in the Municipality of Kumanovo, reported that before the counting of votes had started, and after the doors of the polling station had closed, that two activists of the political party Besa had demanded, by knocking on the door and threatening, to participate in the vote counting, after which the Election Board could no longer resist the pressure and let them inside.
Following this report, CIVIL reported the incident to the police, from where there was an urgent reaction and one observer removed from the polling station, whereas the situation was put under control.
At these elections as well, our observers noted violation to the secrecy of voting, which in several situations was prevented. Namely, in polling station 2447 in the Municipality of Saraj, an observer of DUI voted in place of another voter, who had complained that he could not see well!
In the Municipality of Bitola, in front of the primary school “Gjorgji Sugarev”, our observer was present during an obstruction that was made to the work of the observers, that is, during an attack on other observers from “Go to vote”, who photographed a group of people who received a bribe for coordinating the voters. The bribers noticed that they were being photographed and headed towards them, while the observers ran to the police van. CIVIL’s observer was also verbally attacked in the incident, both from the offenders and by the observers of “Go to vote”, when he tried to find out what was happening and presented himself as an observer of CIVIL. The epilogue to this incident ended in a police station, where both the attackers and the observers were taken.
F.H.
