Civil society reaction regarding Macedonian elections
Your Excellencies,
As part of the Macedonian civil society, we would like to thank you for your efforts and time spent on the successful signing of the Przino Agreement, as well as the mediation of the agreement through Peter Vanhoutte.
The progress of the implementation of the Przino Agreement was slow and selective, with notable delays in key reform processes, as noted by the monitoring of organisations within the civil society. The principles and goals of the Agreement have been neglected and now the focus is on rushed preparations for the early parliamentary elections on the date fixed in the Agreement.
At the same time, the Urgent Reform Priorities are not being implemented. Having in mind that the foreseen reforms are in the rule of law area, their implementation is directly connected with holding credible elections.
Taking all this in regard, we, as civil society organisations, consider that there are still no conditions for fair and credible elections, as envisioned with the Przino Agreement and the Urgent Reform Priorities and with a goal of retaining the country’s recommendation for EU membership negotiations.
We reach out to you, as key stakeholders in the process, just as we are, to recommend, postponing of the upcoming elections, until conditions are fulfilled for a credible election process, according to the Przino Agreement and the Urgent Reform Priorities.
Here you may find a policy memo that describes the state of affairs in greater detail, as well our joint remarks related to the forthcoming elections.
Sincerely yours,
Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” Skopje (IDSCS)
European Policy Institute (EPI)
Institute for Communication Studies (ICS)
Coalition All for Fair Trials
