Centre for Freedom

The scope of a planned "field check" of voters in Macedonia, due to start on Monday, will depend on cross-referencing of voters' data from various state institutions, which should show how many listed voters are "problematic" and need to be checked in person.

The international OSCE/ODIHR mission as well as the two main local monitoring organizations seeking to follow the elections have announced a significant boost in the number of observers for the vote which will put Macedonia's troubled democracy to the test.

Over 40 NGOs said they opposed the plan revealed last week by the embattled Gruevski, insisting it would be politically risky to undertake such an operation amid a deep political crisis that revolves around allegations of illegal, government-orchestrated mass surveillance.

A first-ever local referendum in Macedonia, on the future of a famous mall in Skopje, appeared to have failed on Sunday after only 40 per cent of residents of the municipality of Centar cast ballots.

A 50-plus threshold was needed for the vote to be pronounced successful.

Macedonian NGO Civil - Centre for Freedom, which is launching the report called ‘Reality Check' on Monday in the ethnically-mixed north-western town of Tetovo, said that the recent drive to build scores of new monuments could be a "ticking bomb for inter-ethnic violence" in the future.

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