The State Anti-Corruption Commission (DKSK) called on the Government to stop overly promoting spending programs that could influence the public mood in the run up to the elections.

The ruling SDSM party is already campaigning hard on the Government decree that would provide vouchers worth 150 EUR or more to citizens for travel, education or just buying consumer goods. The move is presented as part of the coronavirus stimulus program, but the way the ruling party and media outlets linked to it are promoting it seems clearly election related.

Measures that the public already knows about and which are being implemented, as well as measures that are not directly linked to the coronavirus, should not be promoted, the Anti-Corruption Commission said.

The Government wants the vouchers to be issued in the form of special pay cards that will be distributed to the citizens. This raised worries that the Government wants to buy votes with public money as Macedonia is preparing for elections that may take place in a matter of months. DKSK, which met with the two point ministers on this issue, Nina Angelovska and Kresnik Bektesi, also asked them to make the stimulus program fully transparent to the public.