Skopje, 14 May 2024 (MIA) - The GROM-led coalition claimed Tuesday it had more than 600 votes stolen at last week's elections, saying it would file a suit to the Administrative Court and press criminal charges against State Election Commission (SEC) President Aleksandar Dashtevski.

The coalition said the votes are stolen in election districts 1, 2 and 5 and transferred to the Worth It and European Front coalitions.

"SEC is involved in this electoral engineering, both during the presidential and the parliamentary elections, but in previous election cycles as well. The goal is to take away votes from smaller parties that have no observers at polling stations, transferring them to major parties in order to get a lawmaker more. We have been deprived of more than 600 votes at only three polling stations. We will file a suit to the Administrative Court and press criminal charges against SEC chair Dashtevski, who allowed this to happen," said GROM leader Stevcho Jakimovski.

He added that the coalition has not filed any complaints to the SEC.

"How do we file complaints when the SEC itself is involved? Complaints are filed for occurrences in the polling station. How can one assume that SEC will steal from you? Someone must end up in prison for this," said Jakimovski.

He referred to a polling station in Chair municipality, for which SEC said the GROM-led coalition received 28 votes, whereas the records of the electoral board showed that 217 citizens voted for the coalition.

"The same happens in the fifth electoral district, where SEC results right after midnight show that our coalition garnered 182 votes but they amount to just 22 sixteen hours later. This is classical electoral engineering and crimes against elections do not have a statute of limitations. Criminal charges will be pressed against the SEC president but we do not exclude one against the entire SEC," said Ljupcho Ristovski, leader of Integra party that is part of the coalition.

The coalition urged the Public Prosecutor's Office to get involved in the case.

Photo: MIA