Today, in Prilep, the leader of SDSM and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced his party’s campaign – municipal debates. The first one opened today at noon in the town under Markovite Kuli (Marko’s Towers) and said that by doing this, the campaign of SDSM and the coalition receives “a new modern style and format”.
“I am glad that today, we are starting with a new modern style in this part of the campaign, which is the introduction of municipal debates. Here we are in the centre of Prilep together with our candidate, Dr. Ilija, with whom we intend to discuss with citizens, to debate important events and to announce the future practice of the new mayor regarding communication with citizens on the issues that are being addressed by them and what are important for their daily lives”, Zaev said.
He said the pre-election campaign was taking place in a friendly atmosphere.
“I am happy that the campaign is taking place in a really friendly atmosphere everywhere”, said the leader of SDSM.
Unlike Zaev, Nikola Srbov, a member of the Executive Committee of VMRO-DPMNE, said at today’s press conference that there is no fair and democratic electoral atmosphere. He pointed out that on September 27th, the independent candidate for the mayor of Kicevo, Alit Abazi, was shot dead, with two more people, one of which was the head of his election headquarters, and said that “the underground, encouraged by Zaev’s politics, begins to be more brutal and calculated by people from the opposite camp.”
“It is the atmosphere in which this election campaign is taking place. It has been stained with blood and incidents in the first week. Shots and injuries have already happened after just a few days of the campaign. This is not a fair and democratic election atmosphere. This is a classical abuse of power that must be stopped and someone must take responsibility”, said Srbov, pointing out that the examples shown by this are the case of September 23rd, when the “alpha team” , under threat of weapons at a rally, searched the candidate for VMRO-DPMNE for mayor of Kavadarci, Mitko Janchev, as well as the demolition of VMRO-DPMNE’s election headquarters in Kisela Voda two days later and the demolition of the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Serbs on September 27th.
