SDSM – DUI presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski made a further play toward securing the ethnic Albanian votes, and insisted that 2001 Ohrid treaty constitutional provisions, Albanians should secure extra political rights even if they don’t constitute 20 percent of the population.

After the 2001 Albanian insurgency led by Ali Ahmeti and his UCK/NLA group, the Constitution was amended in a way that any ethnic community that constitutes more than 20 percent of the population gets additional political rights in the Parliament and in the local level. The percentage of ethnic Albanians after the 2002 census was put at 25 percent, but after one failed census, and another being prepared to include long term emigrants out of Macedonia, questions were raised over whether this figure is valid, given the high levels of emigration. Still, Pendarovski insists that Albanians should enjoy their privileged political position regardless of their share of the population.

We hear politicians loudly demanding a census. I don’t think the census is necessary from the position which they are pushing. It is unimaginable for me to determine whether Albanians constitute 20 percent of the population before we can decide if they should get all the rights provided in the Ohrid Framework Treaty. When asked, during a public event, whether I think that if Albanians are determined to be under 20 percent, they should keep their rights, I say that democracy means adding to the rights for all, not subtracting from them. I don’t think that Albanians are under 20 percent just as I don’t think Macedonians reach the 64 percent share they had at the time. Unfortunately, all the ethnic communities are much lower than they were in 2002, said Pendarovski.

He did not elaborate if he thinks that the share of both Macedonians and Albanians in the total population is being reduced by the increase in some other ethnic group, or if he meant to say that both major groups have seen decline in their overall numbers. Politicians who want to see the Ohrid Treaty adhered to point to the exceptionally low election day turnout in Albanian areas to show that, while Macedonia is losing people on the whole due to emigration, the Albanian emigration rate is significantly higher that that of other communities which could mean that the share of the Albanian population is going down and is possibly below the 2001 level.

The Ohrid treaty provided that many laws, especially those that regard the cultural rights of a minority ethnic group, can’t be altered without the approval of the majority of members of Parliament who belong to minority ethnic groups. This gives Albanian members of Parliament veto over much of the legislation. The provision evidently does not apply to the majority Macedonian community, which saw its name and national identity altered with the Prespa treaty pushed through by the Zoran Zaev Government which did not receive support from a majority of ethnic Macedonians. Turnout at the referendum to rename Macedonia was noticeably higher in Albanian parts of the country, where voters voted to rename the Macedonian nation, and even after the referendum failed, it was pushed through Parliament with all Albanian representatives voting in favor, while a group of opposed ethnic Macedonian representatives was blackmailed and pressured with criminal charges to get to the needed majority.

One of the key provisions of the Ohrid Treaty, that minority languages can only be used in official capacity in municipalities where this minority constitutes more than 20 percent of the population was already thrown out by the SDSM – DUI coalition which supports Pendarovski. Their new law on the use of the Albanian language makes this minority language official across the country, even in areas with few to none ethnic Albanians, opening the door to a mass expansion in public sector hiring for Albanians in areas where there is little need for Albanian speaking public officials.