PES President Sergei Stanishev said: “We fully support our member party SDSM in their demand that President Ivanov revoke all amnesty decisions. As important as the next election is, we can’t accept that minimum conditions for a fair election are not met and we stand behind SDSM and the civil society in their demands for transparency and fairness.”
The electoral roll remains a key concern in FRYOM. Around 330,000 names appear only on the list of the interior ministry and the VMRO – DPMNE, the party that has majority in the current interim government, has not allowed for appropriate verification.
Stanishev said: “If the current flaws persist, the quality of democracy in the country and its prospects of a closer relation with the EU in the near future will be harmed. I call on the government to meet the standards set in the Przino agreement and to listen to the demands of the whole international community and I want to praise SDSM’s efforts and commitment to the whole process which lead to Przino agreement and resulting process. We believe they are the most responsible political force and we will always support them in their engagement to find a political solution to this destabilising crisis Macedonians are suffering from”.
“We believe that this fight for democracy is not lost yet, and that this process can be saved, but in order to restore its credibility it will require a much higher involvement of the international community. The EU and OSCE should take a leading role in the electoral process in order to ensure, first and foremost, full transparency of the electoral lists”, Stanishev said.
