The talks between the State Election Commission (SEC) and the parties indicate that the electoral roll will be reviewed again, but there is no concrete information on the revision. Sources of the Commission have said that several options have been discussed, but that SDSM does not accept any.
Interlocutors have proposed field check, which was once carried out, but it was not obligatory, so the majority of the citizens were not home at the time of the checkups.
The second proposals parties made, was that the "dubious" citizens should register themselves in the regional units of the SEC. Again, opinions are divided on whether the registration should be obligatory or not. If that method of revision was to be adopted, it cannot be obligatory in any way, since voting in Macedonia is not obligatory, and a voter that has already been registered, cannot be removed from the list just like that. The number of the so-called dubious (phantom) voters amounts to 40,000.
Some 170,000 voters are problematic for SDSM, because these voters own valid passports, but after the cross checks they have showed up in only one data base, or have not showed up at all. Those are voters that live abroad, and come home usually for the elections. SDSM gave 2 proposals for those, and one of those will probably be accepted. They proposed the voters should be marked with asterisk, or be put on a separate list, which does not change anything. This should prevent any possible manipulation, such as having someone else vote in their name.
The second proposal of SDSM which was not approved by the other parties, was to list these voters as voters from the diaspora. DUI and DPA members have opposed this proposal, since the majority of the voters are Albanians.
They have argued that the voters cannot be automatically listed as diaspora voters, since expatriates vote after they register themselves whether they will vote or not. If they do not register abroad, they have the right to come to Macedonia and vote here.
Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev confirmed that the electoral roll will be revised, and said that several other methods of how to carry it out.
"The parties agree on those 40,000 which have not been located during the field checks, but their close relatives gave information where they are. The other 170,000 citizens are assumed to be abroad temporarily for work," the PM stressed.