After the Elections

The third in a row parliamentary elections in Macedonia are almost over, official results have not arrived from a couple of electoral districts only. One thing is certain: the parties in power have changed. Although at first it seemed that the sharp clashes among political parties present during the campaign and the elections have quieted down, it proved that it is not exactly the case. Different variants of the new ruling coalition are circling, but also different scenarios according to which the ones who have just become the opposition would in 3 or 6 months, seize power again without new parliamentary elections.

AIM Skopje, 6 November, 1998

The just completed second round of the third parliamentary elections in Macedonia will most probably be remembered for severity of conflicts among political parties and energy invested in the campaign for winning the largest possible number of votes. One thing is certain: many ugly things have been said about everybody, but especially about the opposition which has in the end brought about departure of the Social Democratic Alliance (SDSM) and their coalition partners from power after six years of comfortable rule. Results show that the coalition formed by VMRO-DPMNE (Internal Revolutionaly Organization - Democratic Party of Internal National Unity) and the Democratic Alternative (DA) has ensured 58 seats in the parliament, that SDSM has won 29 seats, that the Albanian pre-election coalition of the Party of Democratic Prosperity (PDP) and the Democratic Party of the Albanians has won 25 seats in the new parliament, and that the others have achieved more or less - bad results. Liberal Democrats have won four seats, the Socialists two, Union of the Romanies one. In both rounds, turnout of the voters was above 70 per cent of the electorate. And the general impression is that majority of voters in fact voted for a change, discontented with what was happening in the country during the rule of the SDSM and its coalition partners. Leader of SDSM and departing prime minister, Branko Crvenkovski, has admitted defeat and declared that his party would be good opposition just as it had been a good party in power. The winners have promised quick constitution of new authorities and implementation of their urgent election platform for the first hundred days of rule of the new government.

After fierce (pre)election confrontations of the departing party in power and the coming opposition, although there has never been so much bitterness, so many lies and insinuations, everything appears to be very relaxed. The impression is that the winning coalition is holding firmly all the strings in its hands and that it does not manifest nervousness although it officieally has 58 votes out of the at least 61 necessary to form the government. Repeated voting in one electoral district offers a possibility to win another seat in the parliament, but it is interesting that a few parliamentarians from other minor parties, but even from SDSM, have offered their votes for election of the new government! Therefore, it is no wonder that the main topic of speculations in the media in the past few days are combinations about who might be the third coalition partner of new authorities, who will take which post in the new administration. Of course, the only exception is the avalanche of issues of the newspaper publishing company Nova Makedonija (after the victory of VMRO-DPMNE and DA, Macedonian Radio-Television "elegantly" made a shift and started promoting journalists' professionalism!) which is feeling so threatened that it is treating almost exclusively its own frustrations - which is from a position inadequate for public media (which looks upon journalists as social and political workers from the previous SFRY system and serving as the most primitive propagandists and collaborationists of the state security service) how to sign or publish police notes or fabrications on numerous conspiracies of the winning coalition which has won majority of votes of Macedonian electorate, and now, from the first day of its being in power, it is busy making lists on liquidations and similar. These losers wish to present themselves as victims of the new non-democratic regime. The impression is that the ease of those who are coming into power is based on certainty that the new administration will be constituted with no major problems, even if the third partner who would enable a comfortable majority in the new parliament is never found. Nervousness of the defeated is manifested in their launching various scenarios according to which they will cause a split in the winning coalition and convince the public within three to six months with the explanation that the new authorities are not capable of ruling the state, that they will lead to ruin - which was indeed the motto of the campaign of the SDSM and media controlled by it.

The situation in the block of Albanian political parties in Macedonia is especially interesting. At the proposal of the demonised and still unregistered DPA, or coalition of the Party for Democratic Prosperity of the Albanians and National Democratic Party, an inter-partisan agreement was conceived and signed according to which these two parties (or one party and one coalition, if formally and legally observed) agreed about a joint list of candidates for the proportional list of future parliamentarians and divided between themselves the 17 electoral districts in which the Albanians would certainly win according to the majority principle. The foundation of the agreement was the assessment that the Albanian political population should not be divided according to inter-partisan animosities, that the danger should be avoided of losing political credibility like it happened in Albania (a series of major incidents) and in Kosovo (in different circumstances), where radical activities have become prominent (UCK), but that a reasonable agreement should be reached about things which, as a political requirement, are not questionable, and instead of dividing the votes of the Albanians, work on uniting them. The agreement was reached and signed by leaders of Albanian parties in Macedonia before the beginning of parliamentary elections. And it proved to be the most efficient in the past elections. Like never before, the Albanian parties combined won 25 seats, which formally makes them the third political force in the Macedonian parliament. The only pre-election concept achieved before the final round of the past parliamnetary elections, however, after the initial demonstration of efficiency, seems to be showing signs of weakness. The impression one gets is that PDP is not giving up on lamenting over SDSM and the coalition in which everything that brought about extreme estrangement into interethnic relations in Macedonia has happened. On the one hand, the agreement of two Albanian parties is quite clear: joint proportional list, division of posts in places with majority Albanian population where they stand a chance, all that based on mutual interest that the Albanians in Macedonia will acquire equal political status, education on all levels especially in university education and in respect to the status of Tetovo university, gaining ground for official use of Albanian language on state an local level, proportional participation in the institutions of the system according to the percentage of their participation in the population, decentralisation of central power in favour of local authorities, and what all relevant political forces in Macedonia consider undoubtful - release of political prisoners, primarily mayors of Tetovo and Gostivar, Rufi Osmani and Alajdin Demiri, and presidents of their municipal councils.

The election platform of DA, which was tacitly adopted by VMRO-DPMNE, is full of actual obligations with actual deadlines. The situation in the state is such as it is - not at all rosy. Those who are coming to power will encounter numerous problems, both without and within the country. The voters who have voted gainst the current authorities are expectiong more work and evident effects of the new government. This is, on the one hand, a heavy burden for the new authorities, and on the other, a chance for those who have gone to use possible "blunders" of the new government to their benefit.

AIM Skopje

ISO RUSI