SDSM party activists were filmed distributing packages with food to poor, mainly Roma voters in a part of the city of Gostivar. With the election campaign officially beginning today, footage such as this makes it clear that SDSM will continue to buy votes in the poorest areas in Macedonia, using food or cash payments as leverage.

Even before the campaign began, SDSM was organizing such “humanitarian” campaigns in Strumica and Kumanovo, while their activists were filmed giving money in Skopje’s poor Shuto Orizari district.