In the Macedonian Parliament, a debate is scheduled on the several thousand amendments which the DUI party submitted to the Electoral Code proposed by its coalition partner SDSM.
Since it’s impossible to go through all the amendments, the DUI move effectively blocks any debate on the SDSM proposal to abolish the six electoral districts and have all members of Parliament elected in a single district. This way of distributing the votes would like harm the largest parties, both SDSM but most importantly VMRO-DPMNE, and will harm the Albanian parties like DUI, but would allow the entry of several small parties – like those representing smaller ethnic minorities. SDSM is counting on having smaller ethnic or protest parties absorb votes from VMRO and from dissatisfied SDSM supporters, and then reeling their representatives back to the SDSM group in the next Parliament. The move by DUI to block this plan has caused friction in the coalition with SDSM, and if DUI doesn’t withdraw the amendments, the proposal will likely fail.
VMRO-DPMNE criticized Zaev for attempting to change the electoral model with just a few months before the vote, and without consensual agreement from all major parties. The opposition party states that, if the model is to be changed, it should be toward a first past the post system, such as those used in the US, UK and Canada. DUI, on the other hand, said that it would accept having one electoral district, but only if Albanians have guaranteed 30 seats in Parliament, with strictly defined quotas for Macedonians and the smaller minorities as well.
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