Eurasia Press & News
Only heavy snowfall has been causing problems so far as voting in Macedonia’s presidential and mayoral elections – seen as a key test for the country’s democracy – are underway.
Polls opened at 0700 CET (0600 GMT) and will close at 1900 CET (1800 GMT). But 103 out of the nearly 3,000 ballot stations in remote mountainous villages have not yet opened due to the heavy snow, the State Election Commission said. Despite efforts by the army and police, election materials could not be distributed.
“We are talking about 12,000 voters which is less than one percent of the overall electorate in the country,” the head of the State Election Commission, Aleksandar Novakovski said at a press conference. A new round of voting will now take place there.
Otherwise, the State Election Commission said that the voting so far is going well without incidents.
The turnout at 1000 CET was approximately 7.8 percent which is significantly lower than in last year’s general election when the turnout at that time stood at around 11 percent.
Nearly 7,000 domestic observers and over 500 foreign monitors, mostly coming from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been dispatched. Media inform of a police presence at all ballot stations in order to prevent possible incidents.
The vote is closely monitored by the European Union after last year’s June general election was marred by violence and fraud in ethnic Albanian areas. Top EU and NATO officials have said this year the voting has to be democratic in order for the country, an aspirant member for both organisations, to restore its credibility.
The country’s largest monitoring organization, MOST also confirmed that the voting is so far going smoothly and does not resemble last year’s fiasco where one person was killed and several injured in election-related violence on polling day.
Local media inform of several police arrests on Saturday night at midnight in the village of Petroves near the capital Skopje and speculate it may have been made out of precaution against possible election incidents.
The police confirmed the arrests for the local Alfa TV but did not reveal the reasons. Unofficially, Alfa said that the suspects arrested might have been marked as possible election troublemakers.
If none of the seven presidential candidates wins more than half of the votes in the first round a run-off will be staged on April 5 between the two front-runners. The same applies for the mayoral candidates.
If the country pulls off a smooth election it can hope for a swift removal of EU visas put up against travelling Macedonian citizens and a date for the start of its EU accession talks this autumn.
Macedonia has been a EU candidate state since 2005 and last year the EC said Skopje is still not ready for the start of accession talks largely because the violence and fraud allegations that marred the 2008 general election.
