Municipalities still owe allowances to election boards nearly ten months after local vote

Nearly ten months after the 2025 local elections, members of voting boards in several municipalities are still waiting to receive the allowances they earned while administering the vote. The elections took place on 19 October 2025, with a second round on 2 November 2025.

The State Election Commission (SEC) told reporters that, in addition to Mogila, the municipalities of Kriva Palanka, Cheshinovo-Obleshevo, Strumica and Valandovo have not paid allowances at all, while six other municipalities have made only partial payments.

"SEC has no mechanism to force payments," the commission says

"Besides issuing reminders to the municipalities, which has been done several times, and last year to ensure that funds are planned on time for this purpose in municipal budgets, and this year with several letters, SEC has no other authority, nor a mechanism to act on the legal obligations for the payment of allowances to election bodies for the Local Elections 2025," the SEC said.

The commission added that members of election bodies must pursue their claims before the competent municipalities because payment of allowances is a municipal legal obligation. Citing repeated delays, the SEC said it has proposed amendments to the Electoral Code.

"We propose that the SEC fully take over the payment of allowances for all election bodies, for all types of elections and referendum. In the last case we saw that the current way of divided competences between the SEC and the municipalities creates unnecessary delays," the SEC said.

In May 2026 the SEC arranged payment of allowances for 11 municipalities whose accounts were blocked; the municipalities that are still late were not among those 11. The municipal administration of Mogila did not respond to requests to explain why payments to local voting-board members remain outstanding nearly ten months after the vote.

Photo: press material from the event