www.civil.org.mk ELECTIONS 2016 FINAL REPORT OF THE LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS AND EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA, 2016 ELECTIONS 2016 FINAL REPORT OF THE LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS AND EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA, 2016 CIVIL - Center For Freedom SKOPJE, 2017 ELECTIONS 2016: FINAL REPORT OF THE LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS AND EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA Publisher: CIVIL – Center for Freedom For the Publisher: Xhabir M. Deralla Editorial/Project Team of CIVIL Xhabir M. Deralla (editor of the publication), Sinisha Stankovic (editor in CIVIL Media), Biljana Jordanovska, Monika Tales- ka, Maja Ivanovska, Dehran Muratov, Ermin Klimenta, Dr. Sasho Ordanoski (political analyst), Aleksandar Novakoski (legal expert), Sandra Gavrilovska (legal expert), Petrit Saraçini (media expert), Goran Naumovski (financial expert), Dragan Zelić (GONG, Croatia, election monitoring expert), Heather Roberson Gaston (USA, human rights expert), Sonja Eftovska (CIVIL Executive Committee Chairperson), Marija Tegovska, Marijana Gugoski, Diana Tahiri, Kreshnik Ajdini Language services: Natasha Cvetkovska, Diana Tahiri, Kreshnik Ajdini, Heather Roberson Gaston, Gordana Aceska, MA Layout & Design: Ivana Taleska Photographs: Biljana Jordanovska, CIVIL archives Illustrations: Miroslav Stojanovic, Xhabir M. Deralla Printing: TP Dule 99, Skopje Findings and standpoints presented in this publica - tion are solely of CIVIL and its authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the donor. This publication is financed with German funds from the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. This publication is made available the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Contacts: CIVIL, Maksim Gorky 31/1, 1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia 02/5209176 | [email protected] | [email protected] Web: www.civil.org.mk Facebook: www.facebook.com/civil.mk | Twitter: www.twitter.com/ CivilMacedonia YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/Civil.Macedonia ISBN-10 608-4815-06-5 ISBN-13 978-608-4815-06-8 EAN 9786084815068 CONTENT | 4 Fear, divisions, captured state... And defiance! | 10 Project “Free Macedonia” | 16 (Pre)Election Recommendations od CIVIL | 22 Free elections are the only chance for restoring democracy and the rule of law | 28 Fierce political pressure | 36 CIVIL demands institutions and political parties to stop with the abuses and pressures | 46 Citizens, do not be afraid to vote! | 52 A peaceful, but tense vot- ing day, filled with numerous irregularities | 72 REVOTE IN TEARCE: A small illustration of major problems | 78 Chaos: Voters Register and State Election Commission | 88 Reports of foreign observation mis- sions | 96 Macedonia needs a process similar to denazification | 106 Where there is fear, there is no democracy! | 114 The right to vote has been violated! | 126 The Struggle for democracy in Macedonia | 134 Financing election campaigns of political parties | 142 The dirtiest Media Campaign ever | 158 Orchestrated media back to the old ways: Obedient government propagandists barely waited for the mandate of the ad-hoc body to end! | 162 A Black Campaign | 170 Two hundred difficult days for Macedonia | 188 The battles with the bad cyber-wolf| 196 About The Project FEAR, DIVI- SIONS, CAP- TURED STATE... AND DEFIANCE! Xabir Deralla, CIVIL, presentation of the principle: ZERO TOLERANCE for electoral irregularities FEAR, DIVISIONS, CAPTURED STATE...AND DEFIANCE! XHABIR DERALLA lection processes in the Republic of Macedonia bring an entire palette of socio-po- litical and institutional malfunctions to the surface. In many ways, the 2016 early parliamentary elections represented the legacy of ten years of institutional cap- ture by the ruling parties. Structural violence, widespread political corruption, and Eviolation of laws and democratic standards became a dominant feature of everyday life, marked with divisions, fear and intimidation. From blatant to subtle, these malfunctions and severe intrusion into the democratic system have created conditions for capturing of people’s minds, social engineering at an unprecedented extent. Traditional and new media continued to be an arena where dirty and aggressive propa- ganda replaced information, blurring the picture of what really goes on in the country. These challenges, CIVIL has been monitoring since 2008, concluding that the country’s media, with very few exceptions, are not up to the task of keeping voters informed about the choices that lay ahead, as they are dominated by the interests of the political parties. 6 The electoral system, namely the State Election Commission (SEC), has brought an over- whelming portion of irregularities and inefficiencies to the election process. There has been tremendous national and international efforts, expertise, support and new legisla- tion endowed to the SEC, providing unprecedented opportunities to this institution to safeguard the legitimacy of elections. In reality, the SEC became one of the most serious problems posed to the election process. Above all, the SEC has manifested utter arro- gance and has insulted citizens by its silence and failure to act. By doing so, the SEC has stripped thousands of citizens from their constitutional right to vote on the Election Day. To our great sadness, if not our surprise, our reports from Election Day are filled with instances of votes being cast by fictitious persons, or “phantom voters,” who have persis- tently remained on the voter rolls, while actual, living citizens of Macedonia were purged, with no system of redress. Only for this, if not for the many other failures, the SEC had to resign immediately. The arrogance of the institutions, starting with SEC, and ending with the government and state agencies, have continued after the elections. These bodies did not act to protect the vote on Election Day, nor have they provided the answers for the numerous malfunc- tions noted during the election process in the country. The election process and the campaign was filled with fierce nationalist hysteria, manipu- lation, and fear-mongering. The society emerged from this period more confused, angrier, and more fearful about the future than before. Abuse of public money, and complete and ruthless abuse and pressure over the public administration were more than obvious. This is such a regular and long-standing practice already that it is rarely addressed even by relevant and independent entities. When CIVIL observers ask questions about the abuse of the administration, the reaction is the same everywhere: “Oh, but that’s normal!” Severe social and systemic failures are so deeply rooted and have been the reality of people’s life for so long that have become “normality” and “banality”. Yet, some things changed in the last couple of years. It can be described with one single word. Defiance! 7 During the pre-election period and on Election Day itself, the office, monitoring teams, and many public events held by CIVIL - Center for Freedom saw record numbers of concerned citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, who wanted to take part in the political process or at the very least report their dissatisfaction and, in some cases, difficulties voting. This was preceded by two years of continuous protesting in which the streets were regularly overtaken by tens of thousands of citizens of Macedonia demanding a change in the system. The struggle of citizens for freedom, democracy and justice has been reflected in the election results. Despite the tremendous pressure and fraudulent activities of the ruling parties, a vast number of citizens voted for the opposition. And the ruling party, VMRO- DPMNE, which has been responsible for the dangerous trends of state capture and na- tionalist rhetoric, emerged with only a thin margin rather than a resounding victory. This election process had one more fantastic outcome. Tens of thousands of ethnic Alba- nians voted for the Social Democrats, which is considered an ethnic Macedonian political party. A strong message against nationalism and divisions has been openly displayed by all ethnic communities and has given hopes that citizens choose multiculturalism and democracy, instead of hatred and divisions. However, Macedonia is far from the free elections its people deserve. And, here we are. We proudly present a Report that is a result of selfless commitment of hundreds of people who worked together towards the creation of a comprehensive report and analysis of the political process and early parliamentary elections in the country. We bring the facts of reality, in spite of pressure and threats. We make no compromises, nor will we ever! This is the fruit of the work of three hundred people who worked with CIVIL for a long year that was filled with challenges and pressure. Many citizens that we met on the streets and town squares called us The Spartans. We proudly carried this nickname and we will con- tinue with untiring determination and persistency, to state the facts of reality regardless of how painful the truth may be. On behalf of CIVIL, I would like to express my gratitude to the donors of the projects that were related to the political process and elections monitoring throughout the year of 2016. 8 Let me also express my gratitude and appreciation for the commitment of all observers of CIVIL, the experts and all authors in this report. I thank all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia who endowed their confidence in us and shared valuable information with