SEC Rejects All Appeals Filed by Parties about 2020 Parliamentary Election

The State Election Commission (SEC) rejected all appeals filed by political parties in relation to the 2020 parliamentary election which took place on 15 July. SEC examined the appeals filed by the political parties at a public session on Sunday evening, after the parties had a deadline of 48 hours to file appeals after the conclusion of the parliamentary election. Of the 2,142 appeals filed to SEC, 1,982 were filed by Levica, 151 by the Alliance for Albanians, 3 from VMRO-DPMNE and 6 by other political parties that took part in the 2020 parliamentary election. SDSM did not file any appeals. SEC Member Boris Kondarko said that the entire electoral process was conducted without any major irregularities and that the results of the election are calculated and published in accordance with all relevant laws. “All 80 registers of the municipal election committees were properly filed and signed by all members of the electoral boards. All of these members had their own diaries where they could register any unusual events in relation to the electoral process. The entire public could see the turnout in the election, so I would kindly ask for the political parties to not look for allegedly lost votes within SEC. If parties believe they are missing votes, they should turn to the citizens,” Kondarko said. SEC President Oliver Derkoski explained that all of the appeals filed by the parties either lack solid arguments for possible violations of the electoral processes or that there is no seal or a signature by an authorised entity from within the parties. SEC also published on its website corrections of the preliminary results of the 2020 parliamentary election that took place on 15 July. According to the new results, the total number of valid votes in the election is 943,750, while the number of void ballots is 31,564.