Presidential Elections and Interethnic Relations in Macedonia
AIM Skopje, 2 December, 1999
The third presidential elections in Macedonia which were intended to give Macedonia a successor of Kiro Gligorov (the former president by now) increasingly resemble a struggle of clowns for inheritance of the throne. Rivalry between the Social Democrats and VMRO-DPMNE increasingly reminds of a battle in trenches for proving the priority right to inheritance of the throne. To make matters even more dangerous, citizens of Macedonia have unwillingly been drawn into this battle and faced with the situation in which they are expected to choose sides. The story about the president as the leader of all citizens appears to be more than trite.
Propagandist machineries of the two political parties lay stress on the thesis that if the candidate of the opposing party wins it will mean the end of hope for all those who have not voted for him. In other words, rumours are going in the direction in which evidence is being sought that the other party is pro-Serb or pro-Bulgarian, with the latter being accused of having made a deal with ethnic Albanians about division of the country. In this way, Pandora's box of interethnic intolerance has been re-opened and this is leading the country into dangerous waters.
A big "contribution" to this propaganda was given by presidential candidates themselves who lay the stress of their campaigns on these very topics. Instead to be given the opportunity to elect the best candidate, the citizens were put in the situation to elect the candidate who they believed threatened their feelings and notions about patriotism less. It is interesting that Social Democrats who had advocated the civic concept ever since this country had become independent, this time bet on the card of ethnic patriotism. The climax of the election process was reached after the second round while the outcome is expected after the third round of repeated elections in almost one quarter of polling stations. Of course, for the time being nobody can say in what direction the forthcoming developments will go, which many believe might be negative. To make things even more complicated, ethnic Albanians who form one fifth of the electorate are in the midst of this political game.
Although one of the key issues in platforms of all presidential candidates was interethnic stability, the course of the elections proves just the opposite. Instead of being a pacifying factor, the elections have turned into a generator of ethnic tensions.
Although a specific victory in the first round went to the candidate of the Social Democratic League of Macedonia (SDSM), Tito Petkovski, who has the reputation of an old-time communist, the candidate of VMRO Boris Trajkovski won in the second decisive round. This would not have been so "terrible" if victory had not been brought to Trajkovski by the votes of the Albanians who had in fact voted against Petkovski. It should be stressed that such an attitude of the Albanians towards Petkovski is the result of the fact that his campaign mostly included negative anti-Albanian messages but especially in the attitude Macedonia will build towards the future status of Kosovo. Surprisingly for all, Social Democrats were joined in this by Democratic Alternative (DA) headed by Vasil Tupurkovski. After the second round, according to government sources, minister of justice from the ranks of this party helped the Social Democrats annul results of the second round of the elections, and at the same time AD put the ultimatum to the prime minister if he wished them to remain in the government. There is no doubt that AD relied on vulnerability of VMRO due to the fact that had AD left the coalition it would have remained alone with "radical Albanians" from the Democratic Party of the Albanians. The reaction of VMRO was quite surprising and they quite angrily declared that members of the Alternative might freely leave the government and "go back to SDSM". After such a reply, members of the Democratic Alternative lowered their voices but it is difficult to believe that they will remain in the administration under the same conditions as before.
If AD carries out its threat, the government of Macedonia will undoubtedly face a severe challenge, it will be in a specific "offside" position. They have announced the final answer to this dilemma for after the final results of presidential elections. If one knows the attitude of the Macedonian public towards the Albanians in general but especilly towards the coalition partner of VMRO in the current cabinet, it can easily be assumed that regardless of the distribution of forces in the parliament, the government will have difficulties in operation. It will be furiously accused that "now when it is left alone with the radical Albanians, sale of the country can be expected any day now", that is, that federalisation or similar will take place. On the other hand, it should be expected that VMRO and DPA with silent support of the other Albanian party, the Party of Democratic Prosperity, will defend itself with the thesis on "Serbisation" of the country and "common front" against throwing the country back in the arms of FRY. In this way, Macedonia will be brought back in the situation it was in in 1990/91, or to the time when it was forced to define its stand about the future. What the epilogue will be like this time remains to be seen. Most of the answers will be given after the third round of the elections when the new president of Macedonia is finally expected to be elected.
AIM Skopje
IBRAHIM MEHMETI
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