Interim Deputy Minister for Public Administration Stefan Andonovski warns that the DUI – SDSM led Government plans to hire nearly 3,000 people in the run up to the elections – likely as a plan to reward party loyalists for their votes.

Some of the hiring procedures that are on-going are entirely illegal. It includes people who have been hired on a temporary basis, and will now receive open-ended contracts, and other applicants are not allowed to compete for the position, Andonovski said.

He pointed to institutions such as the Skopje parks utility company, that is hiring up to 200 people without receiving approval from the city Council. Andonovski, who is from the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, was added to the interim Government precisely in order to monitor such cases of abuse of public resources to secure voters for DUI and SDSM.