After three successful election processes (from the first technical (Przino) government that was formed in 2015 with the purpose of conducting free, fair and democratic elections), now, once again we have a new technical government, and the opposition is as if it can barely wait to get a hold of a position in the government and the institutions. Not in order to control the process, not in order to provide at least minimum conditions for free, fair and democratic elections if maximum conditions cannot be provided, but in order to carry out party propaganda from the position of power by abusing state, public resources. “Technical government for obstruction” is the topic of today’s episode of the political magazine SCAN.
According to SDSM Vice President Damjan Mancevski, the technical ministers of VMRO-DPMNE have not shown anything except that they are cadre of Nikola Gruevski who are working against the country’s interests.
“VMRO-DPMNE’s cadre are in the government for a whole month now and have not offered anything concrete, not a single measure, not a single recommendation on how the institutions could eventually function better. And that is good, that means that the institutions are functioning according to the laws. The only thing we are seeing is obstructions and attempts for restoring the regime. Most probably, those are the guidelines they are getting from Budapest”, said Mancevski.
All members of the State Election Commission, headed by its President Oliver Derkovski, who at the previous elections was proposed by the opposition party of VMRO-DPMNE, unanimously rejected the request of Technical Minister of Interior Nakje Chulev, in which he demands members of the state’s highest electoral body to decide on appointing Risto Stavrevski as Head of SIA – Skopje, according to Article 46 of the Law on Government.
Professor Mirjana Najcevska says that there is no need for a technical government before elections, since an impression is given that the institutions are not working properly and the situation is used for the election campaign.
“I personally think that forming a technical government is very wrong. First, it is wrong that the forming of a special technical government before elections ever entered a law, even if it’s the Law on Government. Because this speaks badly about the state. It speaks badly about the state institutions. It means that the state has no democratic capacity with the institutions that already exist, with the protection mechanisms that should be built and for which we claim they are at such a certain level that we are able to demand opening of the process for joining the European Union”, says Professor Mirjana Najcevska.
Analyst Dzevdet Hajredini said that the opposition’s technical ministers instead of being committed to conducting fair and democratic elections, have been focused on fulfilling party tasks since day one.
“These current ones from VMRO-DPMNE are acting like they have continuously had informers installed in the ministries, recording and taking notes and presenting them to the new ministers of the opposition since the first day of the technical government. These are people who have remained from before the change of government. I am not excluding this possibility, because the remarks towards this government of Zaev are known, that he didn’t perform any cleaning of the state administration from potential opponents. This is being done too naively. They are not doing what their job is, but are carrying out specific tasks – to bombard the public with alleged spectacular negative behaviours of the previous government. I think their role is already compromised. The state should not expect any help or contribution from them, they have no intention of contributing to objective and democratic elections”, says Hajredini.
According to the field survey that CIVIL Media’s team carried out, the citizens also think that the technical ministers are more focused on party orders and tasks.
Minister of Labor and Social Policy Rashela Mizrahi started with party tasks and obstructions from the first day. In the meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy Sanela Shkrielj has constantly been denying her and calling for her to study the laws. Minister Mizrahi appointed Maria Apostolova, former advisor to Nikola Gruevski, as chief of her Cabinet. Mizrahi also issued an employment decision for the driver of former Minister Dime Spasov, who became known for having reported himself for participating in a chase and traffic accident with people from Serava.
Minister of Justice Renata Deskoska for CIVIL Media says that how the institutions function in the political system depends greatly on who is sitting in those institutions.
“You can have cohabitation, the president of the state being from one party while the president of Parliament from another, and for that to function, if there is a political culture and a desire for the laws to be respected. However, there can also be a situation in which your system will be blocked.
We are now witnessing inappropriate behaviours of certain colleagues of ours sitting in the government, who are representatives of the opposition and do not want to respect the basic legal rules regulating how a technical government should function.
For instance, if we know that for certain issues a signature of the deputy minister is required, where it is disallowed without that procedure, without obtaining that signature, that consent, for decisions to be brought. We have witnessed in two occasions decisions of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy to be abolished one after another. It is inadmissible for her to act with an illegal action and she needs to be told. What is this, the minister today appoints unlawfully one person and the tomorrow the government abolishes that decision, all this sends out a bad message.
Unfortunately, VMRO-DPMNE’s understanding of democratic obligations is still not matured, they do not have democratic capacities to access. The technical government is a democratic instrument that should ensure division of competencies, with the purpose to jointly guarantee regularity of the election process. Unfortunately, instead of that, according to the behaviour of their ministers we see an attempt in some way to abuse the positions they have been given for matters that are outside the mandate of the technical government”, says Deskoska.
The technical government has turned from a systematic solution for providing free elections, to a risk to freedom, risk to holding free, fair and democratic elections.
Xhabir Deralla
text editing: Dehran Murativ
editing: Vladimir Percuklievski
camera: Atanas Petrovski
Translation: Natasa Cvetkovska
