Early parliamentary elections [1] in the Republic of Macedonia are being held today, on June 5, 2011. The leading candidates for the office of prime minister are the incumbent Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski [2] of the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE [3] party and Radmila Šekerinska [4] of the social-democratic SDSM [5]. Gruevski has held the top executive office since 2006.
The most popular election-related Twitter hashtags in Macedonian seem to be #izbori, #izborimk, #ferizbori, #mojotizbor [6] (“elections,” “electionmk,” “fair election,” “my choice”), and #zgjedhje [7] (“elections”) in Albanian.
Global Voices has already covered Macedonia's tortuous road to the early elections of 2011: here [8], here [9], here [10], and here [11]. A novelty in this round of the elections [12] is expanding the voter base to the diaspora.However, only several thousand out of hundreds of thousands of Macedonian citizens living abroad have managed to register to vote during during the hasty preparation season.
This has led to controversies over the legitimacy of additional members of parliament (MPs), who can win a post with just a few hundred diaspora votes, as opposed to tens of thousands in Macedonia proper.
The State Electoral Commission [14] [mk] is the main institution in charge of the elections. It is chaired by a representative of the opposition, but is stacked with government supporters who have so far directed the internal decision-making by out-voting.
Monitoring missions and incident reporting
- [15]
- OSCE [15] supports 300-strong ODIHR [16] international monitoring mission, while the Macedonian NGO MOST [17] provides monitoring with 3,500 domestic observers.
- At least two implementations of Ushahidi provide opportunities for citizens to report irregularities, on My Choice [18] and Fair Elections [19].
- Telephone hotlines were opened by the Ombudsman [20] [mk] (0800 54321) and anti-violence NGO Civil [21] (075 846 211).
Voter Education
A number of civil society organizations run informational and educational campaigns about citizen's rights and the offers of political actors.
“What mark will we leave?” – the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections [mk [23], sq [24]] run by NDI [25] Macedonia, Metamorphosis [26], MOST, Macedonian Women's Lobby [27], and IPD. This campaign got the political party leaders to sign in to the Code of Conduct, in order to provide role models for diffusing tensions at the national and local levels, paired with a caravan of events and social media [28] activities, inviting citizens to learn more about their rights and support democratic values during the pre-election campaign and beyond.
As part of the regional cooperation with NGOs from Bosnia [29] and Serbia [30], Macedonian citizens have two new media tools for making more informed choices:
- “Votemeter” [31] [mk [32], sq [33]] allows citizens to compare their positions on various issues to the responses by the political parties.
- “Truthmeter” [31] [mk [35]] provides analysis of the promises and statements by decision-makers and public officials.
“My choice 2011″ [mk [36]] by MCIC [37], MIM [38] and IDSCS [39] is a comprehensive resource website with analyses of the candidates’ programs, their campaigns, media presence, and analysis of other analyses, such as pre-election ratings, etc. This website provides a directory [40] of websites, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube outlets of the Macedonian political parties.
“I vote” [mk [41]] – a campaign by FOSIM [42] and Youth Educational Forum [43] for inciting higher voter turnout as a prevention mechanism against fraud. They run a very successful Facebook competition [44] for promotional posters and videos, creating a feedback loop of “Likes” among youth.
Political parties and coalitions
Like before, most political parties closed their websites 24 hours prior to the election day as part of an informal agreement to extend electoral silence online. However, most of their social media profiles remain active.
An influential [45] Twitter user, Boris Ristovski [46], published an analysis of the online presence of political parties [47] [mk] on “My Choice” last week, and has kindly provided the following list of their outlets for Global Voices:
- New Democracy (sq: Democracia e Re)
Web [48] FB [49] Twitter [50] YouTube [51] - PODEM [Rise] (mk: Партија на Обединети Демократи за Македонија – ПОДЕМ)
Web [52] FB [53] Twitter [54] YouTube [55] - Social Democratic Union – SDU (mk: Социјалдемократска Унија – СДУ)
Web [56] FB [57] Twitter [58] YouTube [59] Flickr [60] - Democratic Union of Albanians – DUA (sq: Bashkimi Demokratik Shqiptar – BDSH)
Web [61] FB [62] - Coalition VMRO-DPMNE and others (mk: Коалиција ВМРО-ДПМНЕ и други)
Web [63] FB [64] Twitter [65] YouTube [66] Flickr [67] - VMRO-Peoples Party AKA VMRO-NP (mk: ВМРО Народна партија – ВМРО-НП)
Web [68] FB [69] - Democratic Union for Integration – DUI (sq: Bashkimi Demokratik për Integrim)
Web [70] FB [71] YouTube [72] - Democratic Party of Albanians – DPA (sq: Partia Demokratike Shqiptare – PDSH)
Web [73] FB [74] Twitter [75] YouTube [76] Flickr [77] - Dignity (mk: Политичка партија Достоинство – ППД)
Web [78] FB [79] Twitter [80] YouTube [81] - Coalition SDSM and others (mk: Коалиција СДСМ и други)
Web [82] FB [83] Twitter [84] YouTube [85] Flickr [86] - Liberal-Democratic Party – LDP (mk: Либерално – демократска партија – ЛДП )
Web [87] FB [88] Twitter [89] YouTube [90] Flickr [91] - Democratic Right (mk: Политичка партија Демократска Десница – ППДД)
Web [92] FB [93] Twitter [94] YouTube [95] - European Party of Macedonia (mk: Европска Партија на Македонија – ЕПМ)
Web [96] FB [97] Twitter [98] - National Democratic Rebirth (sq: Rilindja Demokratike Kombëtare – RDK)
Web [99] FB [100] Twitter [97] YouTube [101] Flickr [102] - United for Macedonia (mk: Обединети за Македонија – ОМ)
Web [103] FB [104] YouTube [105]