Robert Walter, Rapporteur for the post-monitoring dialogue with Macedonia and Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 2010 to 2015, called on the opposition SDSM party to reconsider its decision to boycott the June 5 election.
"I would urge all political parties, but particularly the SDSM, to participate in the June 5 elections. They clearly represent a substantial proportion of the Macedonian population, who deserve to be represented in Parliament. It is the constitutional right of every citizen to elect their representatives. It is the duty of those they elect to represent them in Parliament. I believe a boycott of the June 5 elections by SDSM and other opposition parties would also be irresponsible, putting at risk Macedonia's progress towards EU and NATO membership and undermining investor confidence in the country," Walter said in a statement published on Monday.
SDSM leader Zoran Zaev informed last week that the party will not take part in the elections, because, in their view, there is not enough time to properly prepare them.
The ruling VMRO-DPMNE party insists that the reason is SDSM's consistently poor results in the polls.
The elections, provided by the political agreement reached last summer, were already postponed once, to accomodate SDSM's claims.
"I closely followed political developments in Macedonia as the PACE rapporteur from 2010, and have continued to monitor developments since relinquishing my role last year. Following the last Parliamentary elections in 2014, I visited Skopje several times, with senior members of the Socialist Group in PACE, to urge the SDSM opposition party to take their seats in Parliament and participate in political developments in the country within the constitutional framework. Whilst understanding the frustrations of the governing parties I welcomed the Przino Agreement as a way forward that would ensure that all political forces would participate in parliamentary elections, and those who were elected by the people would take their seats in the new Parliament. The postponement of April 24 election date was unfortunate, but I believe there is now a real opportunity to conduct free and fair elections in accordance with the Przino Agreement," Walter added, calling on the institutions to provide all needed support to the State Election Commission to have it examine the electoral roll.
"But it must be noted that even in the most mature parliamentary democracy no voters' list is ever perfect. Voters die, move house or leave the country. In many countries voters who live abroad or are serving in the armed forces are registered in their former constituencies. In some countries voters who have more than one home are entitled to be registered at each address. Minor inaccuracies should not be regarded as rendering the election result invalid", Walter said in his statement.