Axios, a poll monitoring organization, said that the election observer who was attacked today in the village of Bojane near Saraj was part of their team. It was initially wrongly reported that this was an observer of an opposition party. The attackers were identified as observers from two ruling parties.

Voting was suspended in the polling station after the incident. It caused concerns that it could lead to possible ballot stuffing later in the day which was common occurrence in Albanian majority areas across Macedonia in past elections.

Our activist has credentials from the State Electoral Commission and had it with him at the time of the attack. We demand urgent reaction from the institutions to protect the legitimacy of the electoral process. Such incidents disrupt the right of the voters to freely give their votes, Axios said in a statement.