VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski opened the door for the introduction ofactive voter registration, as a way to overcome the impasse in holding the next elections.
Political parties failed to agree on whether the voting registry is fully purged of immigrants or deceased persons, and this issue, raised by the opposition SDSM party, contributed to postponing and eventually cancelling the planned early elections.
"When we discussed these manipulative claims that the voting registry has not been cleared, I could only remind everybody that last August VMRO-DPMNE suggested introducing active registration of voters. This would remove any and all doubt about the veracity of voters. Everybody who wants to vote, can do so in a period of two or three months, registering with a legitimate identification document. I make this offer again. Let's agree on it, and let's implement it. That would mean that, between July 1 and September 15, or until January 15 maybe, every citizen will be able to go to one of many designated places, to present his ID, leave an electronic fingerprint and register to vote. And then, only these citizens will be allowed to vote", Gruevski says in his interview with the Telegraf.mk news site.
According to this proposal, the State Election Commission would launch a campaign to inform the public and to invite them to register for voting, and would also include door-to-door visits.
Gruevski cites the United States as an example of a country that has active voter registration, and says that in this case, there would be no room for any political party to deny the outcome of the results.
But, Gruevski says, SDSM refused this proposal knowing that, if implemented, it would force them to participate and acknowledge the results of the elections.
SDSM refused to accept the outcome of the 2014 general elections, which they lost by a landslide, claiming that the voting registry was manipulated.
VMRO-DPMNE, which has won all general elections since 2006, won this latest election with 481,000 votes to SDSM's 283,000.
Asked about the expected outcome of the now cancelled early elections that were supposed to take place on June 5, Gruevski says that it would have been along the same lines.
"All indications showed a similar election outcome to 2014. The elections would have been the strongest possible repudiation to the claims that we somehow stole 150,000 votes. The longer SDSM prolongs the crisis and delays the elections, the more the nation's anger will rise and their defeat will be greater", Gruevski told Telegraf.mk.