The State Election Commission (SEC) and the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption are working only through their expert services. The reason is simple: following the wave of resignations due to the public’s pressure, after their corruptive and wasteful practices were revealed, these two institutions have remained headless.

And while the process of appointing new members has been dragging on, questions remain open as to how the preparations for the presidential elections in 2019 will develop, whether there will be enough time for free elections to be organized, whether the Voters Register and the election administration will remain the main obstacle for everyone to realize their voting right…That no one has the intention of demanding responsibility from the SEC, we were able to see with the very decision for them to be given a lavish apanage…

In the meanwhile, the election administration claims that it has been working intensively on trainings for administering the voters, especially of people with disabilities, during the elections.

Regarding the Anti-corruption commission, the question is logical in terms of how much more the corruption is deepening in our country, where precisely the anti-corruption commission got stuck in a corruption scandal…Will the members of the SCPC be held responsible or will a rich “reward” for corruption be provided for them as well?

“The State Commission for Prevention of Corruption is informing the public that, given the fact that on March 19, 2018 a Decision for dismissal of members of the SCPC was passed by the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, with which five members of the SCPC were dismissed from function, in the forthcoming period it has no possibility to decide upon submitted requests and applications, in accordance with the manner of work of the SCPC, determined in Article 51 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption.

In regards to the above, we inform that the Secretariat as an expert service of the SCPC, will act and perform the administrative and technical work of the SCPC, and through the archive and official e-mail of the SCPC will receive and administer the entire documentation that will arrive at the SCPC address”, is said in the announcement of the SCPC from March 29. Previously they defended the corruption, ordering settling of scores with non-governmental organizations through the Public Revenue Office and the financial police, and now they literally don’t have to work anything. Bravo!

In the meanwhile, both of the institutions depend on the agreements between the parties. From the meeting of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev with the new head of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickovski, in March, an agreement emerged according to which as of September

the changes to the Electoral Code will be done and the SEC will be led by independent experts by including party cadres six months prior to the elections.

In March, a meeting was also foreseen of a working group composed of representatives of parties and civil society, in the Ministry of Justice, at which the final result would be a consensus on the electoral reforms upon the proposal of the ministry.

CIVIL was also supposed to participate in the meeting with its own representative. Previously, CIVIL submitted its recommendations on the electoral reforms to the former Minister of Justice Bilen Saliji, who in the conversation with us said that the decision depends on the agreement between the parliamentarian parties. And that’s all…

CIVIL did not receive an invitation for a meeting and has no knowledge of whether that meeting was ever held. The fate of the Ministry of Justice is uncertain, following the resignation of Saliji, because of the Almir case or because of the high restaurant bills (who knows?). So, another important state institution is headless. Not to mention that there was a fire in the ministry itself, in which the archive was also damaged.

That the plan for the SEC remains the same was also confirmed by Minister of Defense Radmila Sekerinska, who is part of the working group that is negotiating with VMRO-DPMNE precisely on the issues regarding the electoral reforms.

Sekerinska, at the beginning of April, conveyed the same position in regards to resolving the SEC issue, as she stated for the media, also according to the remarks of the OSCE/ODIHR.

“An agreement was reached to return the previous model of the SEC with a president from the opposition and a majority of the ruling parties”, adding that this decision enters into force as of September, after all the changes in the Electoral Code are determined. Until then, an ad hoc independent expert body is to be formed. It is still not known in the public who the experts will be, nor who will be representing the political parties in the SEC. The recommendations both for the SEC and the SCPC remain the same. CIVIL alerted the public immediately after the resignations in the SCPC that the process must not stop here

and that it must not be guided according to the SEC’s example. Two anti-corruption officials are still in office and from the latest information, the professional service, as they say from the SCPC, is functioning seamlessly. Even though in their announcement they claim something completely the opposite.

The recommendation remains for the Parliamentary Committee on Elections and Appointment Issues, if any of the former members of the SCPC request apanage, that the case with the SEC should not be repeated. Whereas for the SEC, the loud demand for responsibility remains.

However, it still remains uncertain, if the negotiations have already ended, when the public will see a quick resolution of the problems in both of the institution