The chaos in the Voters Register that marked this year of uncertainty, to the last date of the elections on December 11, has not resolved the dilemmas, as there are still many unresolved disputable voters that can influence the final result of the election process.

In the interim report of the observation of the election process,  CIVIL – Center for Freedom pointed out that the revision of the Voters Register has not provided results and that the institutional inefficiency has led the citizens in serving as a service to the State Election Commission and to other institutions competent for the revision of the list. These cases of phantom voters will remain unresolved and as such will figure on the Voters Register on the day of the elections, already signed by the political parties.

In addition to 200 reported cases that have remained unresolved, CIVIL continued to receive reports about phantom voters from citizens, but also from its monitoring teams, to the moment of the closing of the Voters Register.

According to the published Voters Register, in the settlement of Strima, in the Municipality of Lipkovo, 66 citizens are to vote in polling station 1123 in the primary school of “Dituria”. In the village of Strima, as of 2000 you could find only some people there during the summer time, but in the past three years there is only one person living there, and during the winter not even that one person is there. Still, all 66 voters appear at every election, as has reported our long-term observer.

In Ohrid on “Turisticka” Blvd. No 24, there is only one person living there with the initials T. Lj., but there are people figuring at that address that do not live there at all, nor ever have. One of them, G.B, lives in the US, whereas the person actually living at that address has reported that on the day of the election he will be in Slovenia. Despite the proper reporting to the SEC, and the closing of the Voters Register, the four registered persons still figure on the list.

On “Spas Bandzov” Street, No. 12, in the Voters Register 12 people figure as voters who will be voting at polling station 1276 Ohrid, but these people do not exist at all, while only one person actually lives at the mentioned address, but this person does not figure on the Voters Register.

In Resen the list has not been cleared from phantom voters, not even after the last check until it was closed on November 11.  On the street “29-th November” No.116, the family there had reported to the SEC in march this year, following the first review of the Voters Register. And even after the final inspection, the phantom voters still figure on the list, though the member of the family who had died in the meantime, has been deleted from the list.

In Skopje on “Puskinova” Street, No. 5/2-10, during the review of the Voters Register in April, more phantoms had been added during the last review. Namely, this address has been changed to “Puskinova” Street, No. 1/2-10, while the voters have been moved to another polling station, that is from polling station 2470 to polling station 2739. Despite the proper application submitted to the SEC, in April and August, no one has yet reacted to this application.

These are just some of the reports and applications that we have received in this past period, which cast a shadow on that fair and free elections are possible.

Biljana Jordanovska