The Macedonian opposition is considering the possibility of not participating in North Macedonia’s technical Government, which is set to start working from January 28, 2024, or 100 days before the regular parliamentary elections scheduled for May 5, based on the agreement reached between political parties on December 4.
The technical Government is tasked with organizing and conducting elections, with the participation of VMRO-DPMNE, which must nominate its candidates for the Ministers of Internal Affairs, Labor, and Social Policy, as well as three deputy ministers.
VMRO-DPMNE is discussing its position in the technical Government due to the agreement between SDSM and the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) that the technical prime minister be Talat Xhaferi, currently the Speaker of the Parliament.
“In the coming days, the party’s organs will meet and make the final decision on whether the party will or will not be part of the technical Government,” said Antonio Milošoski, deputy and member of the Executive Committee of VMRO-DPMNE.
VMRO accuses BDI of involvement in organized crime and corruption, while accusing Xhaferi of violating laws in the Parliament.
However, VMRO-DPMNE deputy Antonio Milošoski personally believes that VMRO should be part of the Government to prevent what he calls “current power’s intentions to manipulate elections”.
“I believe that when a government is led by someone like Talat Xhaferi, who has often violated the rules of the Parliament, then anyone intending not to participate in the technical Government would only give more opportunities to this government to abuse elections. Therefore, I believe that VMRO should participate in the technical Government to prevent manipulation of the elections by SDSM and BDI,” Milošoski said.
According to the Law on the work of the technical government, the candidate for prime minister must be proposed by the party with the largest number of deputies in the Assembly of North Macedonia.
In the parliamentary elections in 2020, the coalition led by SDSM had a total of 46 deputies, while the opposition coalition had 44. However, as political parties, VMRO-DPMNE had the highest number of deputies, 38, against SDSM’s 31 and BDI’s 13.
But Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski said that the agreement between the ruling parties to appoint Talat Xhaferi as the technical prime minister is in line with the law because, according to him, SDSM and BDI have the most significant number of deputies, thus having the mandate to form the regular government appointed by President Stevo Pendarovski in 2020.
“Firstly, the law is not being violated because the current and previous governments are coalition governments based on the mandate given by the President of the Republic to the coalition with at least 61 deputies in the Assembly. So, there cannot be talk of a violation of the law,” said Prime Minister Kovačevski.
Regarding VMRO-DPMNE’s warning not to nominate its ministers in the technical Government, the Prime Minister said that it is a legal obligation for political parties, and the opposition must fulfill it as well.
“It is the duty of all political parties to participate in a government that should conduct technical elections. With this, we will have a democratic process without any stain. I believe that all parties, in accordance with the law, should appoint their representatives in the technical government,” said Kovačevski.
BDI has stated that with “the appointment of Talat Xhaferi as the technical prime minister, BDI is fulfilling its promise for the first Albanian prime minister”.
Regarding the reaction of the Macedonian opposition, BDI says, “a government without Albanian parties cannot exist”.
Regular parliamentary elections will be held together with the second round of presidential elections on May 5, while the first round of presidential elections is scheduled for April 24.
