VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski insisted that elections will not take place on June 21, as the ruling SDSM party demands, because the coronavirus epidemic hasn’t been put under control yet.

With these numbers of infections and deaths, Zoran Zaev is pushing for elections. If they plan to hold the vote on June 21, good luck to them. We are not participating, Nikoloski said in a debate with SDSM deputy leader Radmila Sekerinska.

According to Nikoloski, optimal conditions for elections would be after Macedonia has had two weeks with no deaths or new coronavirus infections. “But with these numbers, it’s impossible”, he said. Over the past week, the Healthcare Ministry registered several dozens of infections and between 1 and 3 deaths daily.

SDSM demands elections in June or early July, apparently hoping that the low turnout will help the party. VMRO believes that more realistic dates would be in late August or September.

VMRO-DPMNE is absolutely in favor of early elections, and we aim to win, but we demand that the health of the citizens is protected in full. Unfortunately, that is currently not an option. Holding elections now will guarantee that people will get infected and die as a result of the voting. Having a high level of citizen participation in the elections is a pillar of democracy. Also, there is also no possibility to sufficiently inform the citizens about the policy positions. As things stand now voters won’t be able to even see the candidates, let alone hear them, Nikoloski said.

He accused the ruling SDSM party of managing the extent of testing, which in turn influences the number of positive tests, to suit its political needs.

We had between 600 and 800 tests conducted daily, but we are now down to 150 in some days, which clearly shows that the process is being managed. And even with less testing, the numbers still remain bad. This tells us that the realistic numbers are even worse. I kept warning about the spike in Prilep, and the response was to stop testing there. Patients have died waiting between five and seven days for the results. We saw what happened in Kumanovo, and the conflict with the Mayor. That is the truth about the testing, Nikoloski said.