3,150 Local and 419 Foreign Observers monitor Presidential Election

3,150 local and 419 foreign observers have been deployed throughout the country to monitor the voting at polling stations, the counting of ballots and the summing up of results in the 2019 presidential election. Most of the local observers come from MOST, a local civic association founded in 2002, monitoring the elections with 1,940 observers. Foreign observers include the OSCE/ODIHR mission, which has deployed a total of 240 observers. “We observe if the elections are organized in line with democratic international standards for elections. For us, it’s not the results that are important, but if the procedures are respected. We always wait until we have the full sample of polling stations and then comment on the overall assessment,” said OSCE’s Head of Mission for the presidential election Corien Jonker. The Embassy of the United States has deployed 42 observers. Deployed nationwide were 16 observers from the EU Delegation to Macedonia, while the State Electoral Commission has also accredited 20 foreign journalists and 289 translators.