Local Elections 2005 – Official Start of the Election Campaign
The Election Campaign for the Local Elections 2005, scheduled for March 13, officially started on Monday, February 21. The Campaing will lat for 20 days, and will end on March 11, at midnight, for the one day of campaign silence period. In three weeks time, 1,711,293 registered voters ni Macedonia will elect Mayors and councillors for the City Assemblies of 85 municipalities. The political parties’ headquarters are prepared to present their candidates and platforms to the citizens.
Elections will be held in 84 municipalities and the City of Skopje. A total of 379 candidates will run in the race for Mayor’s offices, or on average, four candidates for every seat. The changes in the Law on Local Elections, have brought down the census for success of the elections from 50 to 30% turnout of the total number of registered voters. If none of the candidates wins the majority in the first round of elections (50% plus one of the total cast votes), second round will be held with the two candidates with most votes from the first round. The candidate that wins more vote will win the elections. The elections for the Municipal councils will be held in a single round, with the application of proportional model. The official results will be published no later than three days after the end of the balloting. The Local Elections will be monitored by 32 monitors delegated by OSCE/ODIHR, and 3500 volunteer observers of the MOST civic association. MOST started the implementation of the project “Domestic Monitoring of the Local Elections 2005”, in beginning of January 2004, under its Responsibility and Transparency programme. The presence of citizens in the ballot stations, as impartial and non-partisan observers, will contribute to the transparency of the overall election process and increase the trust of the citizens in the results of the elections. MOST will send observers to about 60% of all ballot stations. The Union of Women Organizations in Macedonia SOZM will also join the monitoring efforts with 760 observers, which will follow the women voters, but will also register all irregularities and violations of proper balloting procedure. |
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