Elections
Today, in the premises of the State Election Commission in Skopje the numbers for the candidates-mayors were drawn. Local elections will be held in three municipalities where currently there are acting mayors. In the Municipality of Novo Selo due to the resignation of the mayor, and in Debar and Ohrid due to the death of the mayors.
Welfare
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy most strongly deny the untruths stated in today’s statement of “Handicap Plus”, that with the proposed law on social protection the rights of persons with disabilities will be cut. Handicap Plus referred a question to Minister Mila Carovska, asking when there will be debates with people with disabilities and their real problems heard.
From the Ministry through their announcement they say that they know the real problems and that with the new legal regulation the rights are actually being promoted, with several basic principles: article 15 – principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination, article 17 – principle of participation, article 18 – principle of individualization, article 22 – principle of best interest.
CIVIL – activities
CIVIL – Center for Freedom constantly and most strongly condemns all forms of hate speech and inciting all forms of extremism in our society.
Extremism in our society and in the system is a long-term operation from which we will not free ourselves if we keep silent and do nothing about it. Perhaps with a huge delay, but we must start immediately, today. According to the laws and standards that already exist in our legislation!
“Therefore, CIVIL – Center for Freedom, as an organization for human rights and freedoms, demands from the institutions to take into consideration the legality, the respect for human rights and freedoms, as well as the security of all citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia. CIVIL condemns hate speech and encouraging of violence in any form and expects from the Government and every ministry and institution at the local and national level to deal with extremists in their structures. Human rights activists are not obliged to do their job!”, is said among else in CIVIL’s announcement following the published Facebook status with extreme hate speech by a member of the ARM.
CIVIL-Center for Freedom organized another two-day regional seminar for citizen journalism this past weekend in Stip.
Various topics were covered at this two-day seminar, which helped citizen journalists acquire skills and practical knowledge in the area of journalism, but also human rights and freedoms, the electoral processes and social-political events. They also became familiar with the basics of election monitoring and timely and objective informing and reporting on social and political processes.
The new components of the project were also presented, which allow participants direct participation in the implementation of the project, both in the media platform and in the work of CIVIL as a human rights organization.
Interview
Ahead of the sixth presidential elections in the Republic of North Macedonia, within the framework of the pre-election interviews with relevant figures from society and politics, CIVIL Media spoke with the Minister of Interior, Oliver Spasovski .
“The Ministry of Interior, just like for all the other election processes, is undertaking all competencies anticipated with the Electoral Code for the presidential elections as well. We are in direct correlation with the State Election Commission and our first activity started immediately after the elections were announced with the submission of data to the SEC for the forming of the Voters Register. For us it is very important to provide a peaceful, stable and secure atmosphere for the political parties during the elections. In that sense, the MOI has prepared maximally, that is, according to all the regulations, to be successful also in creating such an atmosphere in the Republic of North Macedonia”, stated Spasovski among else.
Monitoring
CIVIL’s Human Resources Commission today started with the finalizing of the decisions in regards to the applications for observers in the presidential elections. The interest to become a CIVIL observer is surprisingly big and has highly exceeded the number of 160 observers, as much as the organization can accredit in this election process.
The preliminary results will be known tomorrow already, and the decisions on the status of the applications will be submitted to the candidates no later than March 27.
Just like during the parliamentary elections in 2016, a black campaign is again on the scene, from which not a single candidate has been spared. Things are being written about the children of the candidates, old statements are given new contexts, all with the purpose of discrediting the opponent.
CIVIL has determined presence of hate speech and a black campaign, as well as a premature start of the campaign for this election process several times now and has also alerted the public.
D.T
