Justice Minister Shasivari calls Wednesday talks on the election law

Justice Minister Shasivari is making a fresh attempt on Wednesday to bring parliamentary parties together to narrow differences over proposed changes to the election law, organisers say. The meeting aims to reconcile rival positions ahead of formal drafting and voting on amendments.

Leftist party Levica, which has been the most vocal about political advertising during campaigns, gave other parties a final deadline ahead of Wednesday's session. Levica said it will attend the meeting but expects the remaining parliamentary groups to respond positively to the invitation before it decides on any further steps. The party also did not rule out submitting its proposals in stages to the parliamentary groups should the talks fail.

SDSM issued a short statement to TV24 confirming that its positions remain unchanged until its demands on diaspora voting and concerns about how ballots are marked are met. SDSM emphasised that it will not attend a meeting while the risk of electoral fraud remains: "As long as there is an option for electoral fraud and our demands regarding the diaspora and what we requested for marking the ballots are not met, we will not appear at such a meeting. At the moment when that is overcome, representatives from the SDSM parliamentary group will be able to take part in one of the future meetings."

Ruling party VMRO-DPMNE has repeatedly accused SDSM and Levica of acting in bad faith, while saying it is prepared to accept a single electoral unit and to increase funding for smaller parties if an overall agreement on a new election law is reached. VMRO-DPMNE stressed that the diaspora remains a strategic priority and suggested postal voting as a possible model.

Amendment volumes and legal background

Despite frequent coordination sessions in the legislative chamber, opposition parties announced plans for a very large number of amendments: roughly 13,000 in total, according to parliamentary sources. Levica said it would present about 3,000 amendments.

The Constitutional Court's decision not to open proceedings on Levica's initiative for equal distribution of funds for paid political advertising further sharpened the party's stance in the Assembly. Earlier, SDSM had signalled it intended to lodge some 10,000 amendments when the latest attempt to change the election law began.

Photo: press material from the event