'Political Pressure' Alleged on Macedonia Voter Roll Clean-Up

A source inside Macedonia's State Electoral Commission, DIK told BIRN that the process of weeding out alleged fake voters from the electoral roll is being undermined by the pressure from the ruling parties.

"The work of the DIK is marked by constant confrontations [between its members]. The majority of the members are clearly biased towards the [ruling] political parties," the well-informed DIK source told BIRN on condition of anonymity.

Amid official silence from the commission about the progress of the clean-up, the source said that "the [nine] members of DIK do not work together to resolve the problems and that is why they are silent and their report is overdue".

"I wonder how they will restore confidence in the electoral rolls this way," the source added.

A proper clean-up of the electoral roll was one of the three remaining urgent reform priorities set by the EU and US before the country holds elections, which are expected to be announced for June 5. The other two were media reforms to ensure objective election coverage, and measures to separate state from political party activities and prevent political pressure on voters.

While the opposition and some observers agree that the other two reforms are far from complete, the clean-up of the voters list was seen as the minimum that has to be done in order to restore public confidence and the credibility of the election process.

On Monday, the head of the main opposition Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev, said that the DIK has lost its credibility because of political party influence on the majority of its members.

The ruling VMRO DPMNE party of Nikola Gruevski continues to insist that the electoral roll will be sorted out on time and that the opposition is...