Skopje, 20 May 2025 (MIA) – At a session Tuesday, the Constitutional Court scrapped articles 17 and 18 from the Electoral Code, which raised the number of signatures independent candidates and lists have to collect to run in elections.

The articles meant that independent candidates and lists had to collect signatures from 1 percent of the total number of voters registered in the relevant electoral unit (in the case of parliamentary elections) or municipality (in the case of local elections).

Before the adoption of article 17, those submitting lists of candidates for MPs needed 1.000 signatures to run. Similarly, before the adoption of article 18, those wanting to run in local elections were required to collect at least 100 signatures in a municipality with a population of 10.000; at least 150 in a municipality with a population of 10.000-30.000; and 1.000 signatures for a candidacy in the City of Skopje.

In the draft report, the reporting judge expressed doubts about the new amendments from a constitutional standpoint, noting that they violate the fundamental values of the Constitution, legal certainty and predictability, as well as the principle of the rule of law. There is also concern that political pluralism, as a fundamental value of the constitutional order established by Article 8, paragraph 1, item 5 of the Constitution, has been undermined.

The petitioners of the initiative for the assessment of the two articles are Liljana Popovska and others, as a group of citizens, through a legal representative, law office Petrusheva from Skopje.

The two articles were adopted as part of amendments to the Electoral Code on March 7, 2024, and were intended to apply to the local elections scheduled to take place in October 2025.

Photo: MIA Archive