The Macedonian Education Ministry tapped political candidates for its list of mentors to students in the municipality of Karpos, then promptly deleted it when the political affiliation of the candidates became clear.

The list was published, then hidden. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that they were selected according to a list prepared by the SDSM party. The main criteria was whether the candidate has a party card, said VMRO-DPMNE spokesman Naum Stoilkovski.

Some of the candidates were literally described as “he/she is ours” and for others, there were comments such as “they are ours, party membership is being updated” or “doesn’t have it” (an SDSM party card”). The list ends with a comment: “Note: There are candidates who applied who don’t have cards and are not our members. Best regards, municipal (SDSM party branch) Karpos”.