It would seem, both the incumbent government and the opposition have no intentions or wishes to postpone the forthcoming elections, despite a series of violations of the terms of the Przhino Agreement. The VMRO-DPMNE have officially stated that it’s priority is for the elections to be held in April, while the SDSM have re-confirmed their commitment to making sure the Przhino Agreement, despite all the delays, does not fail.
” We hope that the Przhino Agreement will not fail, because for us it is a crucial accord and it is essential that it be implemented to the full. Therefor, by creating the conditions for transparent crystal clear elections, all citizens will see how easy it will be to get rid of Gruevski and this criminal government of the past 10 years.” said Zoran Zaev, the SDSM leader at a press conference. However, in an interview on “Top Tema” for “Telma” Zaev said that it was already too late to hold free and fair elections, so leaving room for the interpretation that it may be necessary to move the existing deadline for the elections.
“A comparison needs to be done of all the pictures from the biometric documents, but the Interior Ministry does not possess that sort of software. To even incorporate this software it would require a minimum of 30 days. There has been too many deadlines already, for us to say that Macedonia will have transparently clear elections. Even verifying the Electoral Roll is difficult. It would be a foolish error, or someone has their head in the clouds, if they think we will allow criminal elections. We are only one side of the equation on making decisions about the elections, there are other leaders who must also decide, and the international community should manage the process”, said Zoran Zaev.
The Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski along with MPs Ilija Dimovski and Antonio Milososki stressed several times that elections will not be postponed.
“We do not talk about postponing the elections, our priority is to have elections in April. For us in VMRO-DPMNE, there has been no delays on the terms provided by the Przhino Agreement. For now, the biggest problem is that SDSM are late and still haven’t handed over the wire-tapped conversations to the Special Prosecutor’s Office”, said Ivo Kotevski, a spokesman for the VMRO-DPMNE.
Former EU Ambassador to Macedonia Erwan Fouere, wrote in his column that the only hope for Macedonia to get out of this crisis is for the early elections to be postponed for at least three to six months.
The EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn sent a letter to political leaders who have all signed the Przhino Agreement, where he expresses his concern about the missed the deadlines and the implementation of the agreement.
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) indicates that the short time for preparations of the election will affect the ability of candidates for the obligations of the Przhino Agreement. OSCE / ODIHR recommend that they continue with their engagement of the observation mission for the elections in April.
