“Any innovations in the practice of tasks are welcome, this year we tried to establish direct monitoring, and the idea was quite good and according to the situation with Covid-19 we had employees who were positive, our mobility was limited, we were not able to be on the ground as much as we wanted, but as for the first time the results are good, they inspire hope that with better organization we can have better results “, said Katica Nikolovska, member of the SCPC, at the panel discussion” Electoral Reforms: Desires vs. Reality “
“We planned to hire 20 people, but we did not have candidates and we had 17 from the selection who were deployed in 6 constituencies, to watch the advertisements of the political parties, the rallies, the meetings that were held, the advertising programs they shared, to give us the amount of money spent, but mostly because of the background of those funds.
Considering that due to covid-19 it limited us with funds, we do not have a large number of employees who know the work of political parties for their funding, we acted in accordance with our competencies, we approached the transaction accounts where they collect revenues, we had information from where they are collected and in what amounts.
The latest changes, however, created some misunderstandings, in addition to the funds from donations, the financing was allowed, they can also use the funds from the regular finances of the political parties. In this way a person can pay a certain amount, but it is difficult whether that person is able to qualify those funds.
There remained and increased the number of participants in the election campaign for several brief reports on the receipt of financial income, without providing templates that will facilitate their work, there was a mix of responsibilities and ways of reporting.
The way they were implemented and which resulted from the changes will be a signpost for what should be done with the new changes in the code, the Ministry of Justice did not include us in the working group, I do not know why we are not included, but I hope “a way will be found to get involved,” Nikolovska stressed.
