“For us, what is significant, is the elections in Macedonia to be fair and democratic. We are working with the OSCE and they will send more people than usual the numbers to observe, both in the preparatory phase and to observe the voting on election day”, said EU Commissioner on Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations , Johannes Hahn, in an interview with the Bulgarian weekly “Kapital” published on January 22.
“The agreement between the opposition and the Gruevski to resolve the political crisis in Macedonia has many elements, and elections in April are just one of them. Some of these elements have been met, although they were right on the deadline. Of course, in such a sensitive situation it would have been nice to have a national consensus. But we should accept that it may be unattainable. In Turkey, for example, in the last election there were 30 observers, and now, in Macedonia, drastically smaller state, there will be 24 observers. The OSCE are ready to assist the Macedonian SEC if they ask for help. Again I say, we decisive election is to conduct a fair, transparent and democratic manner. It does not matter if everyone participates, what’s important is the quality of the electoral process. On this basis we can make the next steps to move forward”, Hahn said in the interview.
