Skopje Mission assists in best possible presidential and municipal elections

"The situation is quiet," repeated Duty Officer Vanco Civciristov on the phone. Similarly, Reporting Officer Enrica Vida noted "tutto tranquillo", and the presenter of the TV news at 17:00 announced that the voting was "bez incidenti".

As the messages arrived at the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje's Situation Centre, it became increasingly obvious that the presidential and municipal elections on 22 March might just be the best elections the country had ever had. The Mission - determined to avoid a repeat of the violence which marred last year's polls - spent more than two months assisting the host country in achieving this result.

When Ambassador Jose-Luis Herrero took over as Head of Mission in January 2009, he saw the upcoming polls as key to its work. "Consolidating stability in the country through the strengthening of democracy is at the core of the OSCE's spirit," says Ambassador Herrero.

"All programmatic units of the Mission are involved in providing assistance. This democratic development will have a beneficial effect on stability not only in the host country, but also the region as a whole," adds the Head of Mission.

Election focal point

The first action was to establish an election focal point with two Mission members. Projects were developed and cross-departmental analysis conducted, with the recent reports on previous elections by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) serving as additional references.

The Monitoring and Good Governance Department organized 14 roundtables in municipalities which had experienced problems in past elections, to enhance dialogue and promote respect for free and fair elections. The participants were local representatives of political parties who usually have little contact with each other.

The Rule of Law Department - in co-ordination with the Judicial Training Academy for Administrative and Supreme Court Judges - facilitated events on the proper handling of election appeals. Other roundtables with judges, prosecutors, members of the State Electoral Commission, the Justice and Interior Ministries and other state agencies addressed institutional responses to electoral irregularities, and were organized in co-operation with the Soros Foundation. Training was provided to the Electoral Administration on proper implementation of the election legislation.

Strengthening electoral integrity

The Mission also assisted capacity building for Municipal Electoral Councils (MECs) and Election Boards, enabling them to carry out all necessary legal measures to strengthen the integrity of the electoral process. Lavdim Farizi, Head of the MEC in the ethnically mixed municipality of Tearce in Tetovo, found the training sessions "very useful, as they provided information on how to better deal with potential election irregularities". Other participants also gave positive assessments.

The Police Development Department provided a refresher course on election security to 80 police officers, who then trained another 8,500 officers.

The Press and Public Information Office developed a TV spot encouraging women to vote. The spot, also supported by the ODIHR and the Greek Embassy in Skopje, was broadcast on national and local stations in four languages.

In addition, the Mission supported the NGO "Most" financially and donated 30 computers for their domestic monitoring campaign. It also co-financed a public awareness campaign by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) promoting the electoral code of conduct.

In the run-up to the polls, the Head of Mission and his deputy, Ambassador Natalya Drozd, encouraged actors at all levels to promote free and fair elections without violence.

Remaining uncertainty

But despite all the efforts and the positive reports by the ODIHR Election Observation Mission, some uncertainty remained when the last of the 36 monitoring teams were deployed in the early morning hours on election day. Strategically placed to cover the most sensitive areas throughout the country, the teams analyzed complaints from political parties, candidates and others, and sent monitors to verify accusations.

However, although the first round of the elections was successful, the Mission's work on elections is not over. The second round on 5 April is still ahead. Tensions could arise in areas where the race is tight, and intimidation and pressure have been identified as a potential irregularity in the preliminary ODIHR report.

"Citizens must be allowed to cast their ballots freely and in privacy," emphasizes Ambassador Herrero. "It is of the utmost importance that all actors, political parties, candidates, the police and citizens maintain the positive spirit until the second round of voting and beyond."

Only then will Vanco Civciristov, Enrica Vida and their colleagues - together with the media and everybody else - be able to report at the end of the second round that: "The situation is quiet", "tutto tranquillo", and "bez incidenti".