VOTERS LIST MAINTENANCE IN

MACEDONIA

LEGAL ASPECTS/REGULATIONS

• Voters List registration is passive.

• The Voters List is maintained by the State Election

Commission (SEC).

• All citizens who are 18 years old, who have

residence in Macedonia and who have a valid

personal ID card or passport are registered in the

Voters List.

• All citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, who are

temporarily employed or residing abroad, with a

residence in Macedonia and with a valid passport,

are also registered in the Voters List.

• The VL is updated 4 times a year.

REALITY / PRACTICE

• In reality, the SEC only serves as the gathering place for the data supplied by other bodies and it does not have the authority to challenge these data.

• The main body responsible for supplying data for the voters list is the Ministry of Interior (MoI), which on the other hand receives these data from the Directorate for Keeping Personal Records.

• The data are then sent to the State Statistical Office which processes and issues them in a computer-friendly format. The SEC should have been responsible for the final processing of the data, however, this is still done by the SSO because the SEC does not have capacity for this operation.

State Statistical office (SSO)

State Election Commission

(SEC)

Ministry of interior (MoI) – Directorate for keeping personal records (DKPR)

MOST’S ROLE IN THE MAINTENANCE OF THE VOTERS

LIST

• MOST has been part of the process of electoral reform since 2004.

• In 2006, all the laws regarding different types of elections and election issues were unified in a single Election Code.

• In 2006, MOST, through a Memorandum of Cooperation signed with the Ministry of Justice (the then-competent body for the maintenance of the voters list) established a web site on which the citizens can check their data in the voters list.

• www.izbirackispisok.gov.mk

• By this, Macedonia has become the first country in the region which provided internet access to citizens’ data in the voters list.

• After the project had finished, the Ministry of Justice took over the web site and now it is managed by the SEC, since in 2009 the SEC took over the competence for the maintenance of the Voters List.

• The web site has proven its worth before the

early elections in 2011 when a certain number of

minors have checked their data on the web site

and found that they were registered in the Voters

List.

• This occurred because the SEC had registered all

the citizens that would have turned 18 years of

age in 2012, when the regular elections were

scheduled to take place.

• After the public reaction these persons were

deleted from the Voters List.

• Since 2004 MOST has been part of the working

groups which dealt with the accuracy of the voters

list.

• However, it must be noted that MOST did not

and does not have access to the voters list due to

the legal regulations. This means that MOST

cannot comment on the actual accuracy of the

voters list, even though it is part of the working

groups dealing with it.

• In 2012, following soft pressures from MOST and

other stakeholders a process of examination of the

voters list was initiated resulting in creation of a

working group facilitated by the SEC.

• The process of updating the voters list, i.e. deleting of

the surplus of voters was done by registering only

those citizens holding valid biometric personal

documents. This seemed as the most effective measure

at that time.

• However, the elections in 2013 pointed to a problem

on another level: the issuance of the IDs. Namely,

people from Albania (neighboring country with

Macedonian diaspora) have voted in Macedonia and

they had valid IDs with an address in Macedonia. Also,

there were cases of more than 100 voters registered

on the same address.

• This has showed that the problem is actually in the

Law on registering residence which is the basis for

issuing the IDs.

• The working group continued its work up to date.

• In 2013 experts from OSCE were invited to

conduct an analysis regarding the cooperation of

the bodies responsible for the maintenance of the

VL and to propose a strategy for review of the VL.

• The analysis concluded that there are certain

shortcomings in the process of registering

residence and proposed that either the VL should

be maintained by those bodies who supply data for

it, or it should be maintained exclusively by the

SEC.

• The strategy for review of the VL confirmed the

suspicions regarding the accuracy of the VL, namely

that there are cases of significantly high number of

people registered on the same address. Even though

the MoI is aware of this situation, their official

statement is that all IDs were issued according to the

law.

• The strategy proposed 2 measures to be taken in the

following period – administrative and field review of

the voters list. MOST shall participate in this process

and probably will monitor the field review.

• The assumption is that the field review will be done

through list to people methodology.

LESSONS LEARNED

• The issue of the voters list has been misused by all the

main political parties, depending on whether they are

in power or in opposition.

• Therefore, this issue could be resolved only if there is

a strong political will, both by the political parties

and through that the bodies responsible for its

maintenance.

• The lack of independence with the state body in

charge of the voters list will always cause mistrusts in

the accuracy of the VL.

• MOST’s intention and goal has always been to ensure

the sustainability of the processes in which it

participated. The Voter List web site is an excellent

proof of that.

• Even though your organization is a part of the process,

that does not mean that you can have access to the

voters list.

• This means that you cannot provide argument opinions

and answers questions from the media regarding the

accuracy of the voters list.

• POLITICAL WILL IS THE ONLY AND GENUINE BASIS FOR AN UPDATED AND CLEAN

VOTERS LIST / REGISTRATION!

• VOTERS REGISTRATION AS ANY OTHER ELECTION RELATED ISSUE CAN NOT BE

CHANGED OVER NIGHT!

• IT TOOK 10 YEARS OF PRO-ACTIVE EFFORTS BY MOST AND OTHER RELEVANT

STAKEHOLDERS TO REACH A POINT IN WHICH THE DECISION MAKERS WOULD

CONSIDER MORE SERIOUS APPROACH IN REGARDS TO THE VOTERS

REGISTRATION AND THE ACCURACY OF THE VOTERS LIST.

• QUESTIONS

• Can CSOs comment on the accuracy of the voters

list?

• Should CSOs aim at determining the shortcomings

in the process and seek for accountability from the

state bodies part of this process?

THANK YOU!