Doc. 8604

22 December 1999

Ad hoc Committee to observe the presidential elections in "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (31 October and 14 November 1999)

Report

Bureau of the Assembly

Rapporteur: Mr Henning Gjellerod, Denmark, Socialist Group

I.       INTRODUCTION

1.        "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" joined the Council of Europe on 9 November 1995. The 1999 presidential elections were the second since the country gained independence in 1991, the first presidential elections being held in October 1994. The most recent elections in the country were the parliamentary elections of October 1998.

2.        A monitoring procedure of "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"'s honouring of obligations and commitments accepted on admission to the Council was opened in July 1996 and is still in progress.

3.       In a letter dated 15 September 1999 the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr Savo Klimovski, informed the President of the Parliamentary Assembly that presidential elections would be held on 31 October 1999.

4.        At its meeting on 24 September 1999 the Bureau of the Assembly decided to set up an Ad Hoc Committee to observe the presidential elections.

5.        On the basis of proposals from the political groups, the following Ad Hoc Committee was set up:

HEGYI (Hungary)

Group of the European People's Party

Mr Björn von der ESCH (Sweden)

Mr Latchezar Socialist Group

Mr Henning GJELLEROD (Denmark) - Chairman and Rapporteur (elected as such by        the Ad Hoc Committee on 29 October 1999)

Mr Cristian DUMITRESCU (Romania) - Rapporteur of the Committee on the        Honouring of Obligations and Commitments        by Member States

Mr Joseph DEBONO GRECH (Malta)

Mr Gyula TOSHEV (Bulgaria)

6.       Mr Stefano Bertozzi and Mr Bogdan Torcătoriu provided secretarial services for the Ad Hoc Committee.

7.        Preparations for the election-observing assignment were made in close co-operation with the Macedonian parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

8.        A special programme for the Ad Hoc Committee was prepared (annex 1). It included meetings with presidential candidates, leaders and representatives of major political parties, the President of the State Election Commission (SEC) and the President of the Broadcasting Council. The Ad Hoc Committee also met the Head of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, Ambassador Carlo Ungaro, the Ambassador of Italy to Skopje, Mr. Antonio Tarelli (Iceland and Ireland, the current and respectively the next holder of the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, having no embassies in Skopje) and the Ambassador of Finland to Skopje, Mr. Miko Koponen (Finland holding the current Presidency of the European Union), as well as Mr. Mark Stevens, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission to Skopje.

9.        The Ad Hoc Committee cannot but thank the ODIHR for its most efficient and unfailing cooperation and convey its sincere gratitude to the host country's authorities, who met all their requests for meetings.

II.       EVALUATION OF PREVIOUS ELECTIONS

10.        The first parliamentary multi-party elections were held in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 1990. In 1994 were held the second parliamentary elections and the first presidential elections. The Parliamentary Assembly Ad Hoc Committee observing these elections described them as "free and fair", even if several technical irregularities still existed (Doc. 7205). In October 1998 were held the third parliamentary multi-party elections, representing, accordingly to the Ad-Hoc Committee, "a significant improvement on the 1994 elections" (Doc. 8257).

III. THE PRE-ELECTION PERIOD

11.       The second presidential elections were conducted in accordance with the election regulations and especially with the "Law on election of the President of the Republic of Macedonia" of 1994, amended in 1999.

12.       A candidate could be nominated by a minimum of 10 000 voters or at least 30 deputies. Six candidates were participating in the race and, by drawing of lots, the SEC set their sequence on the list, as well as on the ballot papers, as follows :

- Mr. Muharem NEDJIPI - PDPA-NDP (Party for Democratic Prosperity of Albanians - Popular Democratic Party), nominated by more than 10 000 voters

- Mr. Vasil TUPURKOVSKI - DA (Democratic Alternative), nominated by more than 10 000 voters

- Mr. Muhamed HALILI - PDP (Party for Democratic Prosperity), nominated by more than 10 000 voters

- Mr. Tito PETKOVSKI - SDSM (Social Democratic Union of Macedonia), nominated by more than 10 000 voters

- Mr. Stojan ANDOV - LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), nominated by more than 10 000 voters

- Mr. Boris TRAJKOVSKI - VMRO-DPMNE (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity) , nominated by 49 deputies.

13.       The issue of determining political parties' representatives to serve on District Election Commissions (DECs) and Polling Station Election Commissions (PSECs) was a controversial one. The formula determining which parties could nominate representatives was based on the last elections held, which were the 1998 parliamentary elections. Therefore, parties passing 5% of the votes in 1998 were considered for inclusion on DECs and PSECs. These parties were then separated into "ruling party" and "opposition party" status, each of these two groups being allowed to propose two members onto each commission. This did not take into account pre-election coalitions, the changing status of parties, the formation of new parties or the fact that, for the presidential elections, each of the three ruling parties (VMRO-DPMNE, DA, PDPA) had put up their own candidates.

14.       The official number of voters was 1 610 338, every 18 years old citizen having the right to vote. Some people claimed that the number of voters was too high, given that the size of population was, according to different estimations, between 2 100 000 and 2 250 000. But, based on research carried out by the Election Observation Mission of the OSCE/ODIHR, the percentage of registered citizens was not abnormal. For a 2.1 million population, the percentage would be 76 % - even lower for a 2.25 million population - compared to 77.5 % in Hungary, 76 % in Romania, 79 % in Slovenia and 80 % in Croatia.

15.       The Commission responsible for voter registration had announced an increase in the number of registered voters of over 37 000, compared to 1998. Some opposition parties and some media had claimed that this is too high an increase and had speculated that the government was adding fictious voters with an intent to commit fraud on election day. However, the breakdown of the national level figures given by the Ministry of Justice was considered reasonable.

16.       The ballot was organised by the SEC through the Election Commissions in 85 voting units with 2 973 voting places.

17.       In order to cope with the possibility that no candidate reached 50% of the voter cast in the first election round to be elected President, a second round was scheduled for 14 November 1999. In order to be validated, each round had to have a more than 50 % voter turnout. The law stipulated that in the eventuality of invalidation of the election, the "entire electoral procedure" had to be repeated. The Chairman of the SEC acknowledged that it had not been discussed or agreed if this meant starting with the re-nomination of the candidates.

18.       The SEC decided to provide for voting by prisoners for the first time. On Saturday 30 October, there was an advance voting by prisoners, serving military personnel and patients in hospitals.

19.       The SEC also decided that the ballot papers will not include party symbols, but just an ordinal number for each candidate together with the name and with the name of the political party. The method of voting was circling this ordinal number, but the SEC instructed polling station commissioners to allow any indication, so long as the voter's preference was clear. This was a change to 1998 when the ballot had to be marked exactly as per the law.

20.       Each voter had to produce a valid voter card and ID in order to be allowed to vote. Since over 8 000 registered voters were without a new, post-independence ID, the SEC stated that a valid 'Socialist Republic of Macedonia" ID would be acceptable.

21.       As in 1998, all ballots had a serial number to prevent extra ballots being introduced in the polling stations. This year, in order to avoid the possibility for the Polling Station Election Commission to know the number of the ballot received by each voter, the SEC issued an instruction that all ballots be shuffled to mix up the numbers.

22.       On 2 September 1999, the parliamentary committee on appointments, backed by the parliamentary majority, decided to remove the President and two other judges from the SEC for irregularities in the nomination of the members of District Election Commissions. This was a surprise as recent amendments to the election law stated that the present commissions should remain in office for another two years, that is to the end of their present term. Finally, the Vice-President of the SEC was promoted as President. This was again a surprise, as it had been speculated that the current parliamentary majority had the intention to nominate a new President close to it, while the Vice-President of the SEC was appointed as such by the previous parliamentary majority.

23.       The law governing media coverage of the elections was still ill-defined, since the Election Law referred only to a general responsibility for media to be fair and equal in its coverage. The specifics were left to each individual media to determine. The Broadcasting Council, the official media "watchdog", issued guidelines and recommendations, but lacking legal status. Furthermore, there were no guidelines for print media, with each editorial board setting its own criteria and rules.

24.       Electronic media coverage included three categories of election-linked programmes: free of charge campaign promotions (which state TV was obliged to provide for); paid campaign promotions (with a stipulation that no candidate could rent more than 7% per hour on state TV and no more than 20% per hour on commercial TV); news and information programmes (in which all media had to allocate equal presentation time to all candidates). Concerns had been expressed regarding the quality of news for opposition candidates, who claimed that, whilst they got an equal amount of coverage on state TV, it was of an inferior quality, as no live pictures were used, or reports on their meetings were not broadcast until the midnight news programme.

25.       Following the last elections, there was a wide-ranging change of senior managers, editors and journalists in the State media. VMRO and PDPA had been accused to have replaced SDSM and PDP appointees with their own - also in state institutions and state-owned companies. However, as mentioned in the joint preliminary statement issued by PACE and ODIHR after the first round, the overall coverage of the campaign in the media represented an improvement upon 1998, both in terms of quality and quantity.

26.       Accordingly to the ODIHR, some TV stations and newspapers became noticeably more partisan during the campaign for the second round of the elections. MRTV, the public-service broadcaster, focused extensively on the activites and achievements of the government, while a private TV channel (Sitel TV) devoted a high proportion of its news to criticism of the government. "Nova Makedonija", a largely publicly-owned newspaper, continued to support Boris Trajkovski, while the newspaper "Utrinski Vesnik" exhibited a strong bias towards Tito Petkovski. Meanwhile, other electronic media and newspapers were largely neutral in their coverage.

IV. VOTING

27.       On the day of the first round the Ad Hoc Committee divided into three teams to visit some 60 polling stations in Skopje, its surrounding area and 12 other cities all over the country (details in annex 2: the PACE press release of 1 November 1999).

28.       No major irregularities have been observed by any of the teams at the polling stations. Accordingly to the law, the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Polling Station Election Commissions were not members of any political party (with two exceptions). No campaigning was observed at the polling stations or in their immediate vicinity. There were no police officers present inside or outside the polling stations. The ballot papers had been re-shuffled, following the instructions of the SEC. The ballot boxes were transparent and sealed properly. The ballot papers were made of a better quality paper (thicker) than in 1998 and they were folded before being introduced in the boxes, so that it was not possible to read the voters' choice from the back-side. The confidentiality of vote was respected, since the cardboard screens ensuring it were twice as high as during the previous elections. Family voting was much less widespread than in 1998. In general terms, no tension was noted at the polling stations.

29.       In the polling stations where the counting of votes was observed, it appeared that the operation was conducted calmly, efficiently and professionally.

30.       The Ad Hoc Committee of the PACE and OSCE/ODIHR held a joint press conference the next day. A PACE press release (annex 2) and a joint Preliminary statement (annex 3) were issued.

31.       As a result of the first round, the two candidates receiving most of the votes were Mr. Tito Petkovski (SDSM) and Mr. Boris Trajkovski (VMRO-DPMNE). The second round, which took place on 14 November 1999, was won by Mr. Boris Trajkovski, with 52.85% of the votes (Mr. Petkovski won 45.94% of the votes). SDSM alleged that the final result was a "terrible fraud".

32.       A partial re-run has been organised on 5 December 1999 in 230 polling stations, most being located in Albanian areas. About 10% of the voters were eligible to take part in this re-run. Mr. Boris Trajkovski won by a similar margin of victory to November, the results giving him 52,40 % of valid votes cast (Mr Petkovski won 46,18 %) Nevertheless, SDSM alleged that the fraud of the second round had been repeated for the re-run. The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission reported "serious breaches of the law" in some polling stations.

33.       The Ad Hoc Committee did not observe but the first round of the elections. As for the second round and the re-run, the OSCE/ODIHR Preliminary statements are appended (annexes 4 and 5).

V. CONCLUSIONS

34.       The presidential elections of 1999 were a further clear improvement on past elections, building on many of the positive aspects of the 1998 parliamentary elections.

35.       Based on the overall findings, the elections (and in particular their first round) appear to have been carried out in general accordance with Council of Europe standards and they constituted an important step towards strenghtening the country's democratic and political institutions.

36.       However, in order to ensure further improvements in the future electoral processes, the Ad Hoc Committee calls on the Macedonian authorities:

- to take measures to avoid any controversies in appointing the members of the State Election Commission, as well as to adapt the modalities of appointing the members of District and Polling Stations Election Commissions to the real political situation in the moment of the elections;

- to elaborate more detailed laws governing media coverage of the elections and to grant legal status to the guidelines issued by the Broadcasting Council;

- to continue and strengthen citizens' information on electoral behaviour, putting an emphasis on the illegality of family voting;

- to carefully analyse all alleged irregularities reported and make public the results of these analyses.

ANNEX 1

Ad Hoc Committee on observing presidential elections in the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"

PROGRAMME

Friday 29 October

Afternoon       Arrival of the members of the Ad Hoc Committee to Skopje

5.30pm       Coffee at the Hotel Continental offered by Mr Danilo Gligoroski, Head of the Macedonian parliamentary delegation

6.00pm       Briefing at the Italian Embassy with Mr. Antonio Tarelli, Ambassador        of Italy to Skopje, Mr. Carlo Ungaro, Head of the OSCE Spillover        Monitor Mission to Skopje, and Mr. Miko Koponen, Ambassador of        Finland to Skopje

7.00pm       Standing Reception at the Italian Embassy

Saturday 30 October

9.00am       Meeting with Mr. Mr. Mark Stevens, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR        Election Observation Mission to Skopje (at the Hotel Continental)

10.00am       Meeting with Mr. Josif Lukovski, President of the State Election Committee (at the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia)

11.00am       Meeting with presidential candidates        (at the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia)

12.30pm       Lunch

2.00pm-5.00pm       Meetings with leaders or their representatives of major political parties (DA, DPA, LDP, PDP, SDS, VMRO) - at the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia

5.00pm-5.30pm       Meeting with Mr. Ljubomir Jakimovski, President of the Broadcasting Council (at the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia)

5.30pm       Meeting with the press (at the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia)

Sunday 31 October

The whole day       Observation of elections (visits of polling stations and control of counting operations)

Monday 1 November

8.30am       Ad hoc Committee meeting (working breakfast)

9.00am       Exchange of views with OSCE/ODIHR (Hotel Continental)

11.30am - 12.00pm       Joint Press Conference with OSCE/ODIHR (Hotel Continental)

12.15pm       Departure to the airport

ANNEX 2


Press Release

Council of Europe Press Service

Ref: 578a99

Tel: +33/3 88 41 28 93

Fax:+33/3 88 41 27 89

pressunit@coe.int

internet: www.coe.fr

ANNEX 3



INTERNATIONAL ELECTION

OBSERVATION MISSION

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Presidential Elections 31 October 1999

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

Skopje, 1 November 1999 - This preliminary statement of the International Election Observation Mission for the 31 October 1999 Presidential Election in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is issued jointly by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

This statement is preliminary and does not take account of the complete electoral process, which is on-going. The OSCE/ODIHR will issue a final report after the completion of the whole electoral process. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly will also prepare a full report in due course.

Summary of Conclusions

§ The first round of the 1999 elections for the President of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia represents a further clear improvement on past elections, building on many of the positive aspects of the 1998 elections.

§ The observation mission noted some concerns regarding the political campaign, but in general found that it was well conducted with only minor incidents reported.

§ Media coverage represents an improvement on the 1998 election, with most media meeting their responsibilities to treat all candidates equally. The electronic media generally provided a full and comprehensive coverage of the campaign for the public. The time allocated to candidates was generally equal, but some bias in the quality of coverage was noted. Most print media correctly limited comments to the editorial pages, but some did exhibit a bias in their reporting.

§ The election law enjoys wide political consensus. However, the legislative framework could be further strengthened if clarifications are made, particularly regarding the nomination of election commissions and the media coverage of the campaign.

§ The State Election Commission is to be commended for issuing a number of administrative instructions aimed at increasing confidence in the voting and counting processes. On the day of the election, the observation mission noted that these served to strengthen the process.

§ On election day observation reports from across the country noted that the process was generally carried out according to the law. Irregularities were noted in some polling stations, and these should be addressed for the second round. It was also noted that a limited number of Polling Election Boards were not formed on a full multi-party basis.

§ In conclusion, the International Election Observation Mission found that the overall process was well conducted. A number of problems were noted and need to be addressed for the second round. The observation mission stresses that it is vital for all aspects of the second round to be properly conducted and for any shortcomings in the formation of election boards to be addressed in good time for the second round of voting. Based on the overall findings of the International Election Observation Mission, the 1999 Presidential Elections appear to have been carried out in general accordance with OSCE Commitments and Council of Europe standards.

The Electoral Framework

The legal framework for the election enjoys broad political consensus, which contributes to a solid legislative base for the elections. However, the relevant legal texts for the election contain some ambiguities that should be clarified in order to further strengthen the electoral legislation.

The spirit of the existing law in seeking to provide multi-party representation is to be commended. However, it does not take into account parties leaving or joining the government at a late stage, the formation of pre-election coalitions, the formation of new parties or the possibility for all “ruling parties” to be competing against each other. It would be more relevant if the possibility for party representation on election commissions at all levels was simply offered to the parties or candidates competing in the election.

The number of voters in the final voter register increased by over 37,000 compared to 1998. The breakdown of the national level figures given by the Ministry of Justice appears to be reasonable. It is unfortunate, however, that the breakdown was not more quickly made available by the Ministry of Justice, as it led to days of speculation in the media, which could have been harmful for the integrity of the process. The Observation Mission checked the polling station in District 72, which had been identified as a concern by a political party. The Observation Mission was informed that the additional voters were new registrants from overseas submitted by the Ministry of Interior, and did not vote on election day.

The Election Environment and Media Coverage

The campaign was characterised by a significant number of rallies and events throughout the country and a comprehensive coverage by the media. As a result, it is clear that voters had access to a substantial amount of information from which to base their choice.

The vast majority of rallies were peaceful and passed without incident. Only at a couple of rallies were problems reported, and these were minor and localised in character. There were a few reported incidents of violence against local party offices. All political parties need to ensure that their activists behave responsibly during the campaign.

There were reports that the ruling parties were utilising state resources in the course of their campaign, for example to put up large banners in the city of Skopje. The use of state resources, to any degree, for the benefit of any one party in the election campaign is not permissible.

A number of parties and citizens expressed concern to the observation mission that some directors of state and private companies were using their positions to try to influence their employees’ choice of candidate. These claims were widespread, but it has been difficult for the observation mission to verify them. It is important to highlight this concern and to stress that, if such a practice occurred, it represents intimidation and should be addressed by the state authorities.

The articles of the law addressing media coverage of the election campaign are limited to a basic assertion that all candidates should be treated equally, but with no precise stipulation for how this should be achieved. The articles are supplemented by a number of rules and guidelines from the Broadcasting Council, which whilst being helpful, lack legal jurisdiction, and cover only the electronic media with no guidance for print media. Each media sets its own guidelines for the campaign coverage. The result has been a lack of consistency in policy for media coverage of the campaign, and a difficulty in enforcing legal requirements.

The overall coverage of the campaign in the electronic and print media represents an improvement upon last year, both in terms of quantity and quality of coverage. The extensive coverage offered to the public served to increase their access to information on candidates.

The quantitative analysis of the electronic media shows that the time allocated in the electoral programming was fairly distributed, and analysis shows that the TV channels monitored (TV Era, A1, Sitel, Channel 5, Telma, MRTV 1, MRTV 2) generally met their responsibilities.

MRTV, the public service broadcaster, was the only channel to cover the campaign in the regions, and it is to be commended for its extensive coverage. However, a candidate from a ruling party (VMRO-DPMNE) was given a higher quality of coverage on MRTV, with better time slots and rally coverage. Further, its news coverage gave extensive time to members of the government. The overall effect of these factors was an over representation on MRTV of the VMRO-DPMNE candidate and party during the campaign. All electronic media have an obligation to provide equal coverage of candidates, but MRTV, as a public service broadcaster, bears a special responsibility for neutrality and equality in its coverage.

MRTV did not hold candidates responsible for party debts from 1998. This gave all candidates an equal chance to have paid advertisements on the public service channels if they chose. It is regrettable that Nova Makedonija, which has a majority of public funding, came to a different policy decision on the same issue, resulting in a political imbalance of advertising possibilities in one of the national newspapers.

In the print media monitored (Nova Makedonija, Dnevnik, Utrinski Vesnik, Flaka, Fakti), with some exceptions comments on the campaign were largely limited to editorial pages, with generally neutral reporting on the campaign rallies. However, it was noticeable that as the campaign moved closer to the day of election, a few newspapers allowed comments to filter into rally reports, highlighting their support for certain candidates. For example, the Friday 29 October edition of Flaka (a majority state-owned company), openly promoted the DPA candidate, whilst Nova Makedonija showed clear support for the VMRO-DPMNE candidate.

Election Day

Prior to the election, the State Election Commission issued a number of positive administrative instructions aimed at improving the quality of the electoral process, such as mixing the numbered ballots, improving the quality of the ballot paper and allowing a ballot to be counted so long as the voter’s preference was clear. On election day, the Observation Mission was pleased to note that these instructions were adhered to.

The general findings of observers from across the country was of an orderly voting and counting process, with polling board members carrying out their duties according to the law. However, a number of incidents were reported. The observation mission will continue to monitor reports and any claims at the District level.

There were reports of problems in some polling stations in District 66. This is highly unfortunate as similar problems were also experienced last year and should have been prevented this year. The electoral authorities must address these problems and ensure that the people in charge of District Election Commissions (DEC) and PEBs are capable of implementing the election according to the law. The observation mission will continue to monitor reports and claims over the next few days.

It appears that some PEBs only contained representatives from two political parties, rather than the stipulated four. This is highly irregular and serves to increase tension in the polling station. For the second round, DECs must ensure PEBs are truly multi-party to safeguard the transparency of the process. Political parties must fully meet their responsibility to have nominated representatives on the PEBs.

There were also reports of proxy voting and family voting in some areas. These practices should not be allowed by PEBs, as they are illegal and serve to disenfranchise some voters, particularly women.

Mission Information

This assessment is based upon the reports of 13 long-term experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and some 155 short-term observers from 27 participating States. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also participated in the observation, with an 8-member delegation. On election day, observers reported from over 900 polling stations in 81 districts.

The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission has been present in the country since 21 September 1999. Mr. Mark Stevens is the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission. Mr. Henning Gjellerod, Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly and member of the Danish Parliament, is Head of the Council of Europe parliamentary delegation.

Contacts:

Mark Stevens

OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission

Tel/Fax. 091 231 671

Mobile: 070 255 582

Anders Karlsen

ODIHR

Tel. +48 22 520 0600

Fax: +48 22 628 6967

Stefano Bertozzi

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

Tel. +33 3 88 41 20 87

Fax: +33 3 88 41 37 95

ANNEX 4

ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

Aleje Ujazdowskie 19. 00-557 Warsaw, Poland

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

ODIHR ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION

TO THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

1999 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS – SECOND ROUND

Skopje, 15 November 1999 – This preliminary statement is issued by the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, prior to the completion of the formal election process. A final report will be issued within one month of the final official election results have been declared.

This statement should be considered in conjunction with the statement issued by OSCE/ODIHR after the first round of voting.

Summary of Conclusions

Based on the overall findings of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission from the first and second round of the elections, it can be concluded that the electoral process was generally carried out satisfactorily, and in general accordance with OSCE Commitments.

Whilst the election was carried out according to the law in the vast majority of the country’s polling stations, a number of polling stations in the west of the country and around Skopje experienced irregularities. Moreover, extremely high voter turnout figures in some districts and some polling stations raise concerns that need to be addressed by the authorities. In order to verify the full legitimacy of these figures and to ensure full confidence in the results in all districts the election authorities need to carefully scrutinise any and all reported irregularities, even in the absence of a formal complaint.

In conclusion, based on preliminary findings, the election process, including the conduct of the campaign and the voting and counting processes on the national level was generally satisfactory. The Election Observation Mission will continue to monitor all claims in the post-election period.

First Round Results and Claims

Two political parties, the Democratic Alternative (DA) and the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) claimed irregularities after the first round. The DA claimed that the official results contained discrepancies, such as an apparent increase in the total number of registered voters. Given the high likelihood for some small errors to occur during the manual tabulation process at the polling station level and the fact that the details of the official data are fully transparent, the State Election Commission (SEC) explanation that the difference is due to minor errors in the Polling Election Board (PEB) minutes, appears to be reasonable.

The PDP raised questions to the Election Observation Mission regarding what they claimed was an illegitimately high turnout of voters in some polling stations in some Districts in the west of the country and around Skopje. Some of the figures seem unrealistically high, but as PDP chose not to make an official complaint at either the PEB or District level, the legal options, under the existing law, for addressing the concerns are limited. The SEC correctly removed some PEB Presidents from their positions.

The Election Observation Mission would like to stress that if a political party has a claim regarding the process, the complaint must be made to the appropriate election authority or court. Otherwise the electoral authorities are not legally obliged to consider it. Making unofficial claims to the media is not a serious or constructive approach to solving alleged problems with the electoral process. Further, political parties have a legal responsibility to ensure that their designated representatives on PEBs are present on election day, and DECs have a responsibility to ensure that the PEBs are properly constituted, as this is one of the main guarantees of the process.

The Election Campaign and Media Coverage – Second Round

The campaign for the second round of the election, was markedly more negative in tone. However, no election-related incidents were reported.

Media monitoring showed a noticeably more partisan coverage by some TV stations and newspapers. MRTV, the public-service broadcaster, continued to cover the campaign in its entirety. However, it is regrettable that MRTV 1 used its news programmes to focus extensively on the activities and achievements of the government, whilst many stories including criticism of government policy and considered newsworthy by other channels, were noticeably absent from its news programming.

Monitoring showed that Sitel TV, a private TV channel, devoted a high proportion of its news programming, and political commentary, to criticism of the government. Other monitored electronic media (A1, Telma, Channel 5, TV Era) were largely neutral in their coverage.

In the print media, Nova Makedonija, a largely publicly-owned newspaper, continued its biased coverage in favour of Boris Trajkovski, the VMRO-DPMNE candidate. Utrinski Vesnik, meanwhile, exhibited a strong bias towards Tito Petkovski of the opposition SDSM. It was noted that the coverage by Dnevnik was particularly well balanced.

If any decisions are taken in the future regarding new regulations for media coverage of the election campaign, the special responsibilities of publicly-owned media need to be made clear. It should also be stressed that public media should serve the interests of the public and not of the government of the day.

Election Day – Second Round

The decision by the PDP to withdraw their members from some PEBs is extremely regrettable. The observation mission urged the PDP not to take this action, stressing their legal responsibility to fulfil their obligations to the formal electoral process. Given that members of some other parties were also absent from the PEBs in some instances, it should be stressed that the failure of any political party to fulfil its polling station duties is an abrogation of their responsibility, and serves only to undermine the electoral process.

In the large majority of districts observers reported that the process was generally carried out according to the law. However in a number of polling stations in some districts, predominantly in the west of the country and in some districts around Skopje, there was large scale proxy voting and instances of multiple voting.

The Election Observation Mission would like to draw to the attention of the election authorities the extremely high voter turnout figures, in areas such as Lipkovo and Tetovo, as well as the extremely high turnout rates and irregularities in some polling stations, in areas such as Makedonski Brod, Gostivar, Tetovo, Arachinovo, Lipkovo and Studenicani. The election authorities should address any concerns raised, in order to verify the full legitimacy of these figures and ensure full confidence in the process.

It is vital that all reported irregularities are seriously considered by the relevant electoral authority. Given the reluctance of some PEB members to formally lodge a complaint against the process in some instances, it is advisable that even in the absence of official PEB complaints, the election authorities attempt to ascertain the extent of the problems.

Mission Information

This assessment is based upon the reports of 11 long-term experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and some 105 short-term observers from 25 participating States of the OSCE. On election day, observers reported from 725 polling stations in 77 districts.

The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission has been present in the country since 21 September 1999. Mr. Mark Stevens is the Head of the Mission.

The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission would like to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Election Commission for their support of the observation.

Contact:        Mark Stevens, Head of Mission, OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission. Tel/Fax. 091 231 671

      Anders Karlsen, Election Adviser, OSCE/ODIHR Warsaw. Tel. +48 22 520 0600 / Fax: +48 22 628 6967

Annexe 5

ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

Aleje Ujazdowskie 19. 00-557 Warsaw, Poland

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

ODIHR ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION

FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

1999 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS – SECOND ROUND RE-RUNS

5 december 1999

Skopje, 6 December 1999 – This preliminary statement is issued by the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, prior to the completion of the entire election process.

This statement concerns the re-running of the second round of voting in 230 of the country’s 2,973 polling stations, following the decisions by the State Election Commission (SEC) and Supreme Court to annul the election in those polling stations. It should be considered in conjunction with the previous statements issued by OSCE/ODIHR after the first and second rounds of voting.

Summary of Conclusions

Background to the Re-Runs

For the second round of the Presidential elections, the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission concluded that:

In view of such irregularities, the OSCE/ODIHR welcomes the decision of political parties to submit formal complaints to the relevant authorities after the second round, thereby using the existing legal remedies available under the law.

Further, the ruling by the Supreme Court, in addition to the earlier decision by the SEC, to re-run the process in a total of 230 polling stations appears to have reasonable grounds.

The OSCE/ODIHR welcomes the decision by the Supreme Court, in that it reaffirms the illegality of proxy and family voting as stipulated in the election law, and which had been reported by OSCE/ODIHR in 1998 and 1999. This decision should be carefully noted by election officials at all levels, particularly at the polling station level, in order to improve adherence to the legal provisions of the law.

The Voting and Counting Procedures

The conduct of the election in the 23 districts varied greatly.

In some polling stations observers reported a genuine effort by officials to try and ensure adherence to the voting regulations, as well as a large turnout of voters in the polling stations. In Debar, for example, observers reported an improvement in the process compared to the last round of voting. In some other areas in Tetovo and Gostivar, some polling stations were well administered whilst others experienced severe problems.

Observers also reported on polling stations where there was blatant ballot stuffing, and high levels of proxy voting, evidenced in part by the presence of stacks of ballots folded together in the ballot box. These types of irregularities continue to undermine the credibility of the electoral process in these polling stations.

For example:       There were serious problems in the district of Struga (44). In Labunista, after the withdrawal of SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE activists entered the polling station and observers witnessed blatant ballot stuffing. Also in Struga, there were reports of a serious violent clash, which resulted in some SDSM activists being hospitalised.

Observers witnessed widespread proxy voting, both for close family members and larger groups. Observers also noted widespread reports of non-adherence to the technical procedures. In many instances, ID cards were not checked and couples and families were allowed to vote together. Such poor adherence to the procedures by the polling station officials opens the process to wide abuse. Further, illegal acts by polling station officials and political party observers are unacceptable and should be addressed by the authorities, and the individuals concerned should be prosecuted.

On the afternoon of the election, SDSM gave an order for their representatives to withdraw from the polling stations, claiming this was to avoid conflict and to protect their representatives. Whilst it is clear that in some instances SDSM’s representatives had grounds to be concerned for their safety, this was not the case in all polling stations.

The high prevalence of groups of party activists at or around polling stations was again noticeable. In most instances these groups were from the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) or SDSM. Such a practice increases tension, and serves to create an atmosphere of intimidation. All political parties have a responsibility to ensure that their activists do not behave in such a manner.

Mission Information

This assessment is based upon the reports of some 50 teams of international observers from 20 participating States of the OSCE. On election day, observers reported from over 200 of the 230 polling stations being re-run in 23 districts.

Mr. Mark Stevens is the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission.

For further information, please contact:

Mark Stevens, Head of Mission, OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, tel. 070 255

582 (until 08/12/99)

Hrair Balian, Head of Election Section, OSCE/ODIHR Warsaw, tel. +48 22 520 0600 / fax: +48 22 628 6967