The head of the State Electoral Commission (SEC) Oliver Derkoski said that the SEC is not able to simply resume election preparations where they were left off when the elections were postponed.

The ruling SDSM party demands that election preparations resume as soon as its loyalist, President Stevo Pendarovski, puts an end to the state of emergency he declared, and that the SEC has just to complete the remaining 22 days of the interrupted process. SDSM demands elections as soon as possible – on July 5 – believing that an exceptionally low turnout will be to its advantage, even as Macedonia is in the midst of a Second Wave of the epidemic and has the worst daily death and infection reports since the epidemic started.

I have continuously held the same position – holding elections will require 35 to 50 days. It is not possible to organize them in 22 days. The electoral rolls need to be examined from the start. You can’t set an election date with a decree, it requires an order from the Speaker of the Parliament. If a date is set close to the minimum 35 days that are required, the SEC will try to accomplish all its tasks, bu twe can’t guarantee that the process will be organized lawfully, Derkoski said.