There are no inter-party negotiations taking place regarding the Electoral Code or readiness for it, as announced by the Assembly Speaker, Afrim Gashi, and the First Deputy Prime Minister, Bekim Sali, in the past two days. This is the response from the largest parties in the government and the opposition, VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, after the statements of the two senior officials that the parties are still negotiating new solutions in the electoral legislation. Deputy Prime Minister Bekim Sali stated today that the amendments to the Electoral Code are still in the negotiation phase. According to him, after the change in the Ministry of Justice, there are efforts to adopt that law.
– You know that that law was unanimously accepted by several political factors, I should say political parties that are part of the Parliament, however, at the last moment two withdrew, they did not support those changes. After the change in the Ministry of Justice, there are already efforts to adopt that law, however, it is still in the negotiation phase – said Sali, answering journalistic questions at yesterday's gathering in Skopje, on topics related to European integration and reforms in our country.
Yesterday, Afrim Gashi, the President of the Macedonian Parliament, said that at yesterday's coordination of the coordinators of the parliamentary groups in the Parliament, the representative of the Left Party raised the issue of the Electoral Code due to the positions expressed regarding the early elections. Gashi said that it is good to discuss and that he emphasized at the meeting that if there is readiness, the working group in the Parliament and the coordinators should continue the talks on the Electoral Code.
However, the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party responds to this by saying that no possible talks are in sight.
– There are no contacts or initiatives for that. The situation has not changed and we, as a party, are of the opinion that the opposition parties should first reach an agreement among themselves and then we can reach an agreement with them – they say in this party.
This is in the spirit of yesterday's statement by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, who said that he primarily expects a common position from the opposition regarding the Electoral Code.
– I expect a joint position from the joint opposition SDSM, Levica and DUI. When they have a joint position, we are ready to talk and find a joint solution – said Mickoski.
And SDSM told us that there are no contacts.
– There are no meetings, invitations or announcements about them – the coordinator of the parliamentary group, Oliver Spasovski, told the newspaper VEČER.
The adoption of the proposed changes to the Code has been blocked in the Macedonian Parliament by around 13.500 amendments submitted by SDSM and Levica. They are not satisfied with the proposed solutions. For SDSM, the proposal for electronic voting by the diaspora is particularly controversial, as there are not enough control mechanisms, the change in the method of marking the ballot paper and the limitation of objections only if they are entered in the minutes. However, VMRO-DPMNE and Vredi do not want to give up on this solution. Prime Minister Mickoski stated at the time that they would accept any proposed change to the Code, but on the condition that electronic voting by the diaspora remains a possibility.
