Authorities fail to adequately address electoral shortcomings seen in first round, observers say in Skopje

SKOPJE, 28 March 2005 - While well-conducted generally across most of the country, second-round municipal elections, held on 27 March in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, failed again in some areas to meet key OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for elections, neither guaranteeing universal and equal suffrage nor ensuring the secrecy of the ballot.

In the period between the two rounds of local elections and on polling day the authorities did not adequately address the shortcomings identified in the first round, despite some remedial effort.

This is the conclusion of the International Election Observation Mission, which published its findings today. Some 260 observers from 31 countries observed the partial second round on behalf of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, (OSCE/ODIHR). They were joined by representatives from the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe.

"While the generally good conduct of polling for the second round in most parts of the country is again welcome, the persistent and widespread irregularities elsewhere give rise to serious concern, threaten the integrity of the whole process, and must be addressed as matter of urgency," said Julian Peel Yates, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR mission.

Keith Whitmore, Head of the Council of Europe Congress delegation said: "We deplore the de facto disenfranchisement of women in many areas, and their absence from many electoral boards and polling stations where there was not a single woman present. It is crucial that all the country's citizens are properly represented in its official and elected institutions and that all citizens' right to vote is respected."

A second round for the local elections was held in 57 municipalities. Between the rounds the observers noted that legal deadlines were respected for announcing initial results and deciding on complaints and appeals. However, delays in announcing results in some municipalities undermined public confidence in the results. Reports of intimidation of election officials and others, as well as sporadic violent attacks on party activists, contributed to a negative atmosphere.

The authorities made some effort to address first round irregularities, changing some electoral boards where the conduct of voting had been problematic, and opening criminal investigations against persons who had been involved in electoral malfeasance. At the same time, the authorities did not act consistently to remedy cases of obvious malpractice and in many instances municipal election boards voted on complaints exclusively according to political party interests.

The continuing lack of more decisive intervention by the relevant authorities against intimidation of voters and election board members has lead to a culture of impunity in some municipalities, undermining confidence in the rule of law and the ability of election bodies to protect the legality of the process.

Election day was conducted in a generally orderly manner in most of the country.

However, observers reported serious irregularities in a number of municipalities, in many cases the same places as in the first round. Those included stolen ballot papers, ballot box stuffing, intimidation, group voting, proxy voting, and identical signatures on voter lists. The secrecy of the ballot was not respected in 17 per cent of the cases and at least 30 cases of ballot stuffing were reported. The vote count was assessed negatively in almost one out of four polling stations observed.