The political parties made slight progress at today’s meeting with Ambassadors Jess Baily and Aivo Orav and the European Union’s residence in Pržino. According to representatives from the ruling coalition Nikola Todorov and Artan Grubi, matters regarding the cleansing of the electoral roll and reforms to the media were discussed.
Artan Grubi said his is optimistic and he hopes that this constructive approach will lead to an agreement.
He stressed that concerning the electoral roll for his party, it is important that that voters are not deleted because they vote for a certain party to gain political points.
“I can see the various views of the parties becoming closer and all proposals are available to everyone. I hope this constructive approach will finally lead to an agreement”, stated Grubi.
Todorov said that today two topic were discussed generally, and that was the cleansing of the electoral toll and reforms to the media.
“We think it is totally unnecessary that 170,000 voters have been marked with an asterisk star marking them as the diaspora.The 30,000 questionable voters the SEDC found should be deleted, if they do not submit to public inpection. However, we decided to accept the request from the SDSM to prove that VMRO-DPMNE wins elections through projects and the confidence of the citizens, and not by manipulating the electoral register. Regarding the media, our party believes that no media outlet or reporter should be punished for a written text or story.The establishment of a central censorial authority to decide whether an article or contribution is wrong is totally unnecessary. We do not want the press to be put in a position where they’re punished and have to write in orders. We also demand serious reduction of fines”, said Todorov.
Answering a question from the media, Todorov said that the VMRO-DPMNE are always ready for a compromise, and regarding the date for elections, he said that for a third time, elections will not be postponed.
“We have to make sure that all conditions for elections are met and show the public, then we can arrange the date for elections. Regarding today’s meeting, I believe our views are becoming closer”, said Todorov.
Represeantives from the SDSM and the DPA, Renata Desoska nd Ime Aliu, and the two Ambassadorsm, Aivo orav and Jess Baily did not give comments or statements to the media.
The parties stated that in the next few days they will hold one more meeting such as this one.
