Following the meeting of party leaders yesterday, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev sought to leave an impression that all other leaders agreed to hold elections at one of his preferred dates – in mid June and no later than early July. Even as other leaders listed all the pre-conditions, such as having the coronavirus epidemic under control and having a serious team of international observers, Zaev was rattling off dates in June and July, which he said will depend solely on when his political ally, President Stevo Pendarovski, will choose to put an end to the state of emergency.

The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party responded to Zaev’s comments with a press release this morning, pointing to a number of false statements he made.

For one, it is not true that we called elections. There is no date to hold the elections, and the date depends on an evaluation by the Committee on infectious diseases, the opinion of the State Electoral Commission and the response from OSCE/ODIHR on their full monitoring mission. It’s completely untrue that we agreed to have election preparations resume from where they were left off when the state of emergency was declared. We agreed that the SEC will first have to say how long it needs to prepare the elections. That deadline will be at least 60 days from the day the elections are called, VMRO-DPMNE responded.

Zaev insists that the prior preparations by the State Electoral Commission (SEC), for the elections that were supposed to take place on April 12, should be considered done, and that the SEC could just resume its work. SEC President Oliver Derkovski, on the other hand, said that the work needs to begin anew and take 60 days.

Most importantly, VMRO said that Zaev misled the public when he said that the elections are called automatically when President Pendarovski lifts the state of emergency. Party leaders did not agree on a date for elections during their meeting on Tuesday and VMRO said that having Pendarovski set the date is a violation of the electoral code.

VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Vladimir Misajlovski said that Zaev was the only person present at the meeting who was pushing for an election date.

We want elections as soon as possible, but the health of our citizens comes first. There are currently too many obstacles to having elections. We will have them when healthcare experts say it is safe to vote. We can’t campaign without holding meetings with voters, Misajlovski said.

Party leaders are supposed to meet again early next week, when the discussion over when and how to hold elections will resume. It’s clear that SDSM is pushing for a date as soon as possible, even before the coronavirus epidemic has been placed under control, apparently thinking that a low turnout and the still limited impact on the economy will benefit them in the polls. VMRO responds that they can’t allow “corona elections” in which voters will die.

Doctor Igor Nikolov, who is a member of the VMRO-DPMNE Executive Committee, accused the Government of trying to support Zoran Zaev’s push for early elections by under-reporting the number of coronavirus cases. The number of people who are being tested was reduced noticably in the past weeks, and despite that, the share of positive tests grew, leading even to a spike in newly reported cases last week.

A false image is presented in order to declare that the situation is partially under control and some kind of quick elections could be called. Although we have similar numbers of infected citizens to other countries, the mortality rate in Macedonia is several times higher. This is a strong indicator that the actual state of the epidemic is being covered up, Nikolov said.