For 24 years independent state, despite numerous attempts, so far in Macedonia there is only one successful referendum on a national and one on a local level and a citizens’ initiative for referendum on a municipal level, but it was also unsuccessful…
Andrej Zhernovski, Mayor of the Municipality of Centar, met with Nikola Rilkovski, president of the State Election Commission, and Darko Aleksov from MOST regarding the referendum to be held on 26th of April, on which the residents of the Municipality of Centar should decide whether the facade of City Trace Center is in Baroque or should remain as it is now.
At the same time, there were speculations that a so-called counter-referendum is to be organized on the level of Skopje, in which all citizens of Skopje, not only residents of Centar, would vote on the appearance of GTC.
The decision of the referendum is passed at a session of the Council of the Municipality of Centar, but there was controversy over whether only residents of Centar or all Skopje citizens to vote on the appearance of the facade of the GTC, which raises suspicion among citizens whether the referendum will be successful or again, as almost all before, a way it not to be implemented or fail would be found.
The only successful referendum in independent Macedonia is the independence of the state of the former Yugoslavia, held in 1991. Then, 1,079,308 citizens, i.e. 95.09 percent of voting population for the independence of Macedonia by answering the question “Are you for a sovereign and independent state of Macedonia, with the right to enter into a future union of sovereign states of Yugoslavia?” with “for” and “against”.
The failed attempt for the 2004 referendum that was opened for citizens to reflect on the newly adopted Law on territorial division of Macedonia. The referendum was held on 7th of November 2004, at the request of 180,545 of citizens with a right to vote. On the referendum, majority of citizens voted against the new territorial division, but it was declared unsuccessful because 51 percent of the total population didn’t go out to vote on the referendum. Initiator for collecting signatures was World Macedonian Congress.
There was also a successful and a failed referendum on a local level.
The successful referendum was in the Municipality of Gjorche Petrov, when residents of the municipality decided to participate with their own funds in the construction of a sewage network with a length of 40 kilometers. Out of totally 5,117 voters, 3,194 or 63 percent voted, of which 98 percent voted in favor of self-contribution.
There were two failed referendums within ten years on the local level in Shtip.
The first referendum was held in 2000, when it was proposed the outstanding 90 million denars from the self-contribution to be used for construction of a sports hall for 3,000 viewers, which was then projected to cost 5.2 million marks. The second attempt for a referendum in 2004, the funds were to be allocated for the construction of an artificial lake on the river Otinja. But because of party-political defiance, two referendums ended unsuccessfully.
There were announcements for referendums for the same money in Shtip in 2010 and 2014, but none were implemented.
One of the few examples of citizens’ initiative for a referendum on a municipal level is that from 2009 of the Skopje organization “Freedom Square”. Organization raised an initiative against the construction of any religious building in Macedonian Square in Skopje. This initiative failed.
