ELECTIONS 2016: Report on Events by 13:00

During Election Day, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia noticed a number of irregularities in several polling places.

The following irregularities have been noticed by 13:00:

– In the Municipality of Gjorche Petrov, polling station no. 2556 at the Kocho Racin high school, the voting was interrupted from 08:25 to 08: 35 because a voter photographed the ballot with a telephone. The voter was detained by police officers;

– In the Municipality of Valandovo, polling station no. 0281, a voter photographed the ballot and after being told that this was not allowed, he fled the polling place;

– In the Municipality of Kisela Voda, on Bote Bocevski Street, Roma persons were offered 1,000 MKD to vote for the VMRO DPMNE party. The case was reported by a citizen who witnessed the event;

– In the Municipality of Prilep, at the Kiro Krstevski Platnik nursing home, personal documents of the sick were retained by the home’s administration and they could not exercise their right to vote.

– In the Municipality of Negotino, polling station no. 1219, a voter publicly revealed his voting choice;

– In the Municipality of Demir Hisar, polling station No. 0624, a member of the electoral board who voted at the location of the board, told the public who he voted for and voted outside the booth, i.e. in front of everyone present;

– In Tearce, one ballot was taken out of the pile along with the ballot’s serial number

– In the Municipality of Struga, polling station no. 1849, a voter who already voted showed up to vote once again

– In the Municipality of Shtip, unauthorized persons who documented voters outside the polling station were noticed;

– In Novo Selo, one person was campaigning outside the polling station and he fled after the police were called;

– In Mavrovi Anovi, there were no police officers at the polling station (a school) from the beginning of the voting; In the same municipality, minors about 16 years of age were noticed urging the elderly to go out and vote for VMRO DPMNE;

– A prisoner in KPU Shtip reported that he could not vote because he was not in the poll books. Additionally, he reported that he had seen people in the prison who had already finished serving their sentence and voted as prisoners in spite of that;

– From a growing number of municipalities and polling stations, citizens reported they were not on the pool books even though they had valid identification documents and voted on the previous elections. There were also some reports where citizens were on additional lists that were intended for the diaspora. SEC (Mac. ДИК)assured them that although they existed on those lists, their votes would be valid on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia. Following these reports, citizens were advised to send complaints to the SEC, which is obliged to respond within 4 hours.