After the close election results from the early parliamentary elections, the country finds itself full of curiosity, questions and dilemmas.
The Prime Minister for over a year, (from January 18, 2016!) was “for the conduct of elections”, it is unknown whether our Government is technical, transitional or something else, and Parliament has been constituted but there is no President of Parliament…
Nominally, from December 30, 2016, Macedonia has a Parliament, but no Parliament Speaker, i.e. President of Parliament. Trajko Veljanoski assembled the new composition, but MPs failed to elect a new president. Does that make Veljanoski a former Parliament Speaker already? Who will lead and assemble Parliament – the oldest MP or the oldest group?
Formally, Macedonia has a Prime Minister – Emil Dimitriev. His party insists that he was merely a “technical Prime Minister for conducting the elections”, even though elections ended on December 11, 2016. However, on the Government’s official website, Dimitriev is named as “President of the Government”. With what legitimacy? For how long will he be Prime Minister with that title? How long is his term of office? Who will dismiss or change his function? Parliament? Which Parliament? Who will assemble Parliament?
We also have a Government, but no one dares to give it a name. Is it a political Government? If that’s the Government of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI, why do we have a Prime Minister (Dimitriev) with the title “technical Prime Minister for conducting elections”? Does this Government “rule” or does it have a limited mandate – like before the election? Are ministers regularly doing their job or do they have some restrictions, especially in the limbo in which the entire country finds itself in?
Emil Dimitriev was appointed Prime Minister on January 18, 2016, based on amendments to the Law on Government, which emerged from the Pržino Agreement and as a basis for organizing and conducting early parliamentary elections for a way out of the political crisis.
The Government, in the amendments to the Law adopted on November 9, 2015, determines a transitional Government to conduct elections of MPs and to be led by a new Prime Minister who is nominated by the party with the largest number of MPs:
“One hundred days before the parliamentary elections, and after the resignation of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia (Nikola Gruevski), Parliament will elect a new transitional government to conduct elections of MPs, led by a new President of Government (Emil Dimitriev) who is nominated by the party with the largest number of MPs in Parliament”.
Nowhere in the amendments does it refer to when the mandate of Dimitriev as Prime Minister of the transitional Government ends. This is because the issue is regulated by the Constitution (Article 93), according to which, the Government whose mandate was terminated due to the dissolution of Parliament, remains duty-bound until the election of a new Government.
“A Government’s mandate is terminated when Parliament is dissolved. The Government who has a vote of confidence, who submitted their resignation, or their term of office because of the dissolution of Parliament, remains on duty until the election of a new Government”.
Otherwise, after the announcement of the final results of the elections on December 11, 2016, the terms of office of the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Labour and Social Policy from SDSM will come to an end (as well as additional deputy ministers who were part of the government to conduct the elections) and their functions will be undertaken by Deputy Ministers in both departments, personnel from DUI.
