Pendarovski urges Parties to accept Initiative for electoral Model reform

Changes to the Electoral Code, open lists and a lower number of electoral districts. President Stevo Pendarovski has urged political parties to accept the smaller parties’ initiative and reform the electoral model, which will enable citizens to elect not only political parties, but also individual candidates. According to Pendarovski, democratic development, equality, the rule of law and fair and democratic elections are an important factor when it comes to the country’s prosperity, his Cabinet says. “Taking as the points of departure his pledges in the election programme, President Pendarovski considers that there should be a smaller number of electoral districts in the Republic of Macedonia, without a threshold or without a minimal threshold of necessary votes,” the Cabinet points out, adding that that should be in function of expansion of political representation in Parliament. The initiators for changes to the Electoral Code hope that they will get support in Parliament and that smaller parties will no longer be a chain for bigger ones. The ruling parties support the proportional electoral model, which is a recommendation also from the EU and from the OSCE/ODIHR, but they say that wider political consensus is needed for that. VMRO-DPMNE still hasn’t built a stance. Ziadin Sela’s Alliance for Albanians is supportive of the idea for such lists, as are the Democratic Alliance, DOM and BESA.