English
The Safe City traffic monitoring system will be made operational starting in February, after the Parliament today adopted the necessary legal changes with 81 votes in favor and 19 opposed. SDSM and DUI remained united in opposition to the law, but Levica decided to support it.
In the past few weeks SDSM began to raise issues about privacy as their reason why they will not support the law. DUI, on the other hand, could not come with a clear explanation, other than trying to use the higher majority in Parliament needed to adopt the changes for political bargaining. On the day of the vote, some of the DUI representatives protested that the system will cover majority Albanian cities like Tetovo and Gostivar, to claim ethnic discrimination. Two members of Parliament previously aligned with DUI voted in favor of the law.
The system uses cameras to automatically register speeding, crossing a street under red light, driving with expired permits and illegal parking. The fines are automatically generated and the driver is informed through cell phone and email.