Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08SKOPJE339
2008-05-23 11:18:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Skopje
Cable title:  

MACEDONIA'S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION TROUBLES

Tags:  PREL PGOV NATO MK 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1854
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBW RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSQ #0339/01 1441118
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 231118Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY SKOPJE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7364
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE 0315
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUESEN/SKOPJE BETA
RUEHSQ/USDAO SKOPJE MK
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2279
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SKOPJE 000339 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV NATO MK
SUBJECT: MACEDONIA'S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION TROUBLES
CONTINUE

REF: SKOPJE 333 AND PREVIOUS

SUMMARY
--------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SKOPJE 000339

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV NATO MK
SUBJECT: MACEDONIA'S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION TROUBLES
CONTINUE

REF: SKOPJE 333 AND PREVIOUS

SUMMARY
--------------


1. (SBU) In the run up to the June 1 parliamentary election,
tensions between ethnic Albanian parties DUI and DPA
continued sporadically over the past week, with DUI
sustaining most of the property damage to its facilities.
The State Electoral Committee (SEC) announced May 20 the
completion of accrediting election monitors and the printing
of the ballots for the June 1 early elections. Opposition
ethnic Macedonian party SDSM alleged heightened pressure and
intimidation aimed against its activists, and criticized the
government for spending public money for self-promotion and
for allegedly supporting the "clone" SDPM party. With the
latest, reportedly VMRO influenced, opinion polls showing the
governing VMRO with a three-to-one lead over SDSM, VMRO
dismissed claims of unfair practices as unnecessary. End
summary.

DUI/DPA INCIDENTS...
--------------


2. (SBU) Despite the continuous and forceful International
Community (IC) message to eAlbanian politicians to stop
pre-election violence (reftel),incidents have continued.
The media reported that on May 16 DUI activists in Gostivar
were attacked and two injured, allegedly by DPA supporters,
some of them members of the "Alpha" special police units.
DPA publicly refuted these allegations on May 20. On May 18,
a DUI office in Tetovo and a DPA office in Glogi near Tetovo
were reportedly attacked and damaged. On May 21, DUI's
Gostivar electoral headquarters chief Besir Jashari told us
that on May 20 unknown persons driving 20 vehicles without
license plates attacked five DUI offices and stole DUI
election materials.

...RECRIMINATIONS CONTINUE
--------------


3. (SBU) Mutual recriminations continued both in private and
in the media. On May 19, DUI publicly accused Minister of
Interior Jankuloska and Deputy Minister of Interior Elmazi (a
DPA appointee) of participating in DPA Thaci's "butchery."
Not to be outdone, on the same day DPA's elections
spokesperson released footage of Gostivar mayor and prominent
DUI figure Bejta brandishing a gun and making comments "that
normal citizens will find shocking." Accusing DPA of
manipulating the public, Bejta said the footage had been

filmed during a hunting trip last year. In a May 21 meeting
with the Ambassador, DPA's former president, and prominent
eAlbanian intellectual, Arben Xhaferi assessed both eAlbanian
and eMacedonian politicians as "politically and
democratically immature." Saying that the country simply had
to go through this "bad period," Xhaferi nevertheless pledged
to try "to stop the madness, because you cannot build a
political future on dead bodies." However, the media has not
reported Xhaferi making any subsequent forceful statements
against the violence.


SEC: MONITORS AND BALLOTS READY FOR ELECTIONS...
-------------- --


4. (SBU) On May 20, the State Electoral Committee (SEC)
approved the accreditation requests of about 230
international and 320 domestic election monitors. The SEC
also finalized the ballots format and randomly determined the
order in which candidates will appear on the ballot. The SEC
will provide bilingual ballots in municipalities with more
than 20% minority residents. Thus, in 52 municipalities the
ballots will be only in Macedonian; in 26 in Macedonian and
Albanian; in four in Macedonian and Turkish; in one in
Macedonian and Serbian; and in one in Macedonian, Roma, and
Albanian.

...BUT ODIHR IS CONCERNED
--------------


SKOPJE 00000339 002 OF 003



5. (SBU) On May 21, ODIHR Ambassador Barry told the
Ambassador that ODIHR Short-Term Observer teams (STOs) were
well under the originally planned numbers, due to a
smaller-than-predicted number of volunteers and some
subsequent dropouts. He also noted that he was concerned
about the SEC's lack of a security plan, especially for
potential election "hot spots" in primarily eAlbanian areas.
Barry said that District 5, including the city of Bitola, is
the only primarily eMacedonian area reporting complaints,
most related to governing VMRO's misuse of administrative
resources. Ambassador Barry added that the Ministry of
Interior's (MOI) response to pre-election violence was
"uninspiring," noting that neither Minister Jankuloska, nor
MOI's Safety Director seemed to be very engaged.

SDSM CRITICIZES GOM FOR HARASSING SDSM ACTIVISTS...
-------------- --------------


6. (SBU) On May 20, SDSM informed election monitoring NGO
MOST of recent harassment of SDSM activists who had tried to
put up posters in Bitola. Allegedly, VMRO activists tore
down the posters, while the Bitola police station remained
passive. Media reported May 22 that the brother of the SDSM
candidate in Stip was arrested and briefly detained for
filming a May 20 VMRO rally from an apartment balcony. The
police charge that he gained access to the apartment by
falsely claiming to be an MOI official. SDSM spokesperson
Stankovic told us that the filming took place from the
apartment of the Secretary General of the local SDSM branch,
and that the SDSM official and the other two people present
were all handcuffed and charged with false identification.
The police reportedly confiscated the camera and the video
tape.

...SUPPORTING "CLONE" SDPM
--------------


7. (SBU) In a May 19 conversation with the DCM, the Prime
Minister Gruevski's Chief of Staff, Martin Protoger, claimed
VMRO had no influence with opposition SDSM "clone" party
SDPM, which is running candidates with names similar or
identical to five SDSM candidates' names. The DCM suggested
to Protoger that, since SDPM's president is an ex-VMRO member
and a current VMRO appointee in the Ministry of Labor, VMRO
has the political influence to persuade him to withdraw from
the elections. Pointing to the three-to-one lead enjoyed by
VMRO, Protoger asserted his party "does not need tricks to
win," and pronounced SDPM's methods were "maybe unethical,
but not illegal." The DCM emphasized that Macedonia needs a
clean election, and that if the clone party stays on the
ballot it will provide strong grounds for criticism, both
domestic and international. Protoger pledged to recommend to
the Prime Minister that he issue a public statement deploring
the clone party. The DCM raised this again with Protoger on
May 23.


8. (SBU) By May 22, Gruevski had not made such a statement,
and the ballots went to print with the SDPM's candidates on
them. The SEC's spokesperson told us May 22 that the ballots
needed to be printed and the Supreme Court had not ruled on
SDSM's complaint regarding SDPM's candidates. The SEC vice
president Jakupi added that while he considered SDPM's
participation a violation of the Electoral Code, the Public
Prosecutor had the responsibility to pursue any charges
against SDPM. According to the media, the Public Prosecutor
started an investigation against SDPM last week, following
reports that many of the "clone candidates" had allegedly
been put on the ballot without their knowledge. However,
there was no indication that the Public Prosecutor's
investigation would be concluded before the election.

...SPENDING OF PUBLIC FUNDS
--------------


9. (SBU) May 18, SDSM accused Gruevski's government of having
spent 35 million euros of government funds on self-promoting
advertising over the past 18 months, including some 700,000
euros during the past 30 days. In response, the government
announced it would stop all government-funded information
campaigns for the duration of the election. On May 22, PM

SKOPJE 00000339 003 OF 003


Gruevski spoke at the grand opening of a 10,000-seat sports
hall built with public funds. The majority of the very
receptive crowd had reportedly received government-provided
tickets.

OPINION POLLS
--------------


10. (SBU) According to the latest opinion polls of the
Institute for Democracy, 30.2% of respondents said they would
vote for VMRO, while 10.6% were in favor of SDSM. Among the
eAlbanian voters, 9.2% supported DUI and 5.6% supported DPA.
PM Gruevski is still the politician with the highest approval
rating (32.2%),while SDSM's Sekerinska comes second with
12.2%, followed by DUI's Ahmeti with 9.1% and DPA's Thaci
with 4% approval. Soon after the publication of the polls,
SDSM disputed their accuracy, saying the Institute of
Democracy is related to VMRO activist Gorgi Ivanov and GOM
spokesperson Bocevski.

COMMENT
--------------


11. (SBU) The election campaign continues to be tarnished by
violence and intimidation, primarily in the ethnic Albanian
communities, which continue to be directed mostly against
DUI, as well as the appearance of "clone candidates" on the
ballot. On May 21, the Ambassador briefly answered questions
from the media and again called on the government and
political leaders to end the violence and intimidation and
ensure the perpetrators are legally punished. In the coming
days we will continue to privately and publicly send the
message that any further violence, intimidation, or election
irregularities will significantly damage Macedonia's
democratic image.
MILOVANOVIC