Prime Minister Zoran Zaev testified on Monday at the Skopje-based Criminal Court in the ‘Titanic’ case trial over election irregularities in 2014 committed by then-ruling party VMRO-DPMNE.

“The services of social welfare centers were abused, with the party threatening welfare recipients that they would loose aid if they didn’t vote for them. The Forest Police was also pressuring people to cast their ballots for VMRO-DPMNE,” Zaev said.

He added that the Public Revenue Office, the State Market Inspectorate, the Financial Police, etc. were involved in forcing citizens to prove they had voted for VMRO-DPMNE.

The PM stressed that he had relayed the opposition’s position regarding the issue to then-PM Nikola Gruevski, indicted in the ‘Titanic’ case, who never issued a public statement.

Zaev also said during Monday’s hearing that 150 incidents were reported to the authorities (State Election Commission, Prosecutor’s Offices, Ministries), but, according to him, no action was taken on their part.

Both early parliamentary and presidential election were held in North Macedonia in 2014.

Judge Osman Shabani is presiding over the trial and Lile Stefanova is the prosecutor.