The most important thing at the moment is the health of the citizens. There is still a high risk of spreading Covid-19. At the moment, all intellectual and institutional capacities must be concentrated in getting out of this Covid-19 crisis as quickly as possible. The handling of the COVID-19 crisis will determine the date for the elections, Minister of Interior, Nake Culev, said on 24 Vesti on Tuesday.

From my perspective within the Government and what is coming from the Commission for Infectious Diseases, we are still not out of the COVID-19 crisis, there are still infections, deaths and emergency measures. Elections should not even be discussed now. The MoI is working closely with OSCE/ODIHR in organizing the elections. Airports are not open and I don’t know how fair and democratic elections would take place without proper international or domestic monitoring, said Culev.

According to him, MoI will respond to the task regardless of the date for the elections.

Of course, if there is a higher risk of COVID-19 then this would hamper the work of the police in planning the election process and detection of possible irregularities. Regardless, the MoI is prepared to respond to the challenge of elections, be it in July, September or October. Politicians will decide on this, says Culev.

He says there is increasing awareness among citizens over personal protection, with the majority observing the measures by wearing masks or other protective means.

Culev encourages citizens to report domestic violence, by phone or at the nearest police station.