DUI files 5,000 Amendments to Draft-changes to Electoral Code

The MP group of DUI in the Macedonian Parliament has filed over 5,000 amendments to the Draft-changes to the Electoral Code of Macedonia. “We find these draft-changes to be an attempt for one-sided change of the Electoral Code, and we think that it is rather dangerous to make changes to this law right in the period before the snap election scheduled for April 2020. If we make changes, they have to be agreed and adopted as a result of consensus between all political parties. We want to debate the possibilities first, not immediately implement changes,” said DUI MP Artan Grubi. Commenting on the processes for changes to the Electoral Code, the PM Zoran Zaev said that this law may be the first source of major disagreements between the ruling allies SDSM and DUI. “We have already announced in our pre-electoral campaign three years ago that we shall make changes and transform the electoral model from one with 6 electoral units into a model where our country is one single electoral unit, and we have to fulfill that. It is everyone’s legitimate right to file amendments to laws, but we must remain persistent in the realisation of this idea. DUI can actually benefit from elections held in a single electoral unit, while greater parties like SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE will no longer have absolute majority when it comes to distribution of MP seats,” Zaev said. SDSM MP Kostadin Kostadinov called on DUI and other political parties to withdraw their amendments for the sake of democracy and democratisation of electoral processes.