The first round of voting passed in a fair and democratic atmosphere. Citizens again took part in an electoral process where they could express their will freely. On election day, there were only a few isolated cases of irregularities recorded, which did not affect the quality of the election process and were addressed adequately by the authorities, announced Citizen’s Association “MOST”.
The election campaign was in general, a relaxed atmosphere and for the first time no incidents were recorded that could have seriously affected the atmosphere, and only few cases of negative campaigning and the presence of minors at rallies were observed.
“For the first time in a while, we witnessed a growing number of debates among candidates where voters could then make informed choices,” reads a preliminary assessment by the civic association.
The announcement of a register of official vehicles was welcomed in order to identify any abuse, and in regard to the Voters’ List, it is again recommended that it be updated.
Regarding the observation of the elections, MOST says that although the SEC defined the framework, Municipal Election Commissions were not always open to cooperating with MOST observers.
The association monitored voting in prisons, and reports that it went well.
According to the PVT program for parallel voting used by MOST, the turnout at polling stations was 41.67 percent with a margin of error of +/- 0.5 percent. The percentage of invalid ballots is 4.33 percent.
According to MOST, the results look like the following, with a maximum margin of error of +/- 0.5 percent:
Blerim Reka – 10.98% of the vote
Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova – 44.32 percent
Stevo Pendarovski – 44.7 percent
MOST had 80 long-term observers in all municipalities throughout the country, who followed all aspects of the process. On election day, with 1,160 observers, Most monitored and deployed about 33 per cent of the total number of polling stations.
