Skopje, 11 August 2025 (MIA) - State Election Commission (SEC) head Boris Kondarko said Monday that a new Electoral Code is needed, adding that it is the final decision of the Parliament and the political parties.

"Since 2006, amendments have been made to the law more than 30 times in 19 years. The biggest problem we face is actually the law itself. We need a completely new Electoral Code adopted in a timely manner, where all stakeholders in the electoral process will participate and share their proposals, experiences, interactive discussion with the expert public. Of course, the final decision lies with the Parliament, with the political parties, it is their responsibility. We know that the Electoral Code is adopted with a broader political consensus, and it should be so for the sake of trust in the process," Kondarko told Sitel TV on Monday. 

He pointed out he regrets that the Parliament did not adopt the amendments to the Electoral Code which, he noted, would have helped in the interest of facilitating the SEC's work.

"I regret that those amendments proposed by almost all parliamentary groups were not adopted. They would have helped not only on this issue, but also on many other issues that are in the interest of the process and in the interest of facilitating the SEC's work, meaning technical matters. It is not a matter of any political issues that would have improved and facilitated the SEC's work," he said. 

Kondarko stressed that independent candidates will be able to participate in the local elections without signature collection. 

"We clearly and explicitly communicated to the public on several occasions since the day the elections were scheduled, at a public session, which is in the interest of the electoral process to promptly inform all potential participants, that a group of voters will be able to participate in the elections by submitting their lists without signature collection. Because the Constitutional Court rescinded the provisions of the law regulating the number of signatures required, but the right provided for in the law still exists. No one can dispute that, nor can the SEC decide on it, it simply directly applies the law. The right is indisputable, and we are a serious electoral body that stands by what it communicates to the public. What we have said, we will implement. The SEC guarantees the full application of the law equally to all participants in the elections, i.e. political parties, coalitions, groups of voters. Equal requirements and criteria are applied for everyone. There are other types of requirements that those who want to participate are obliged to be familiar with. The SEC will announce them in a timely manner. We plan to hold a public session this week, given the new situation, since the amendments to the Electoral Code have not been adopted in the Parliament in the meantime, to specify our permanent handbook for submitting candidate lists, which sets out all types of requirements for candidacy, or to supplement it in terms of direct application of Article 60 of the Electoral Law. Independent candidates can participate in the elections without signature collection," said Kondarko.

The SEC head pointed out that a handbook regulating the signature collection procedure is one type of act, and a guide for submitting candidate lists is a completely different type of by-law.

"We have revoked the handbook regulating the signature collection procedure, i.e. we have repealed it as a result of the Constitutional Court decision rescinding Articles 61 and 62. When there is no legal basis, there cannot be a by-law provision, there cannot be a by-law act. That is why that regulation was revoked. However, a handbook regulating the signature collection procedure is one type of act, and a guide for submitting candidate lists is a completely different type of by-law act. In this case, the guide for submitting candidate lists exist, only it will be specified in terms of the direct application of Article 60. The SEC is not a legislator, it does not establish a new right with the guide, it does not take away a new right, it does not change the law, it does not interpret the law. The SEC has a legal obligation to apply the right given in the law, and that is what we will do," he said.  

Kondarko said that in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Code, there is no early campaign because, he noted, no candidate lists have been submitted yet, there are no participants in the election campaign, and there are no confirmed candidate lists.

"The question of whether there is a so-called early campaign is constantly being raised. According to the provisions of Article 69a of the Electoral Code, there is no early campaign because no candidate lists have yet been submitted, there are no participants in the election campaign and there are no confirmed candidate lists. There is no basis against which to conduct any procedure. According to the Electoral Code, the SEC does not monitor the election campaign ex officio. It can only react upon a complaint from a participant in an election campaign. We do not yet have any participants in the election campaign and confirmed lists. We do not know who will run in the elections and whose lists will be confirmed, if they meet the requirements. The deadline for submitting lists is 35 days before the elections, and the election campaign begins 20 days before the elections. In this interim period, according to the law, all participants even have the right to organize one public event to promote their confirmed candidate lists. The only subject of protection in the Electoral Code is the spending of state funds, for which the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption and the State Audit Office are competent to conduct control. There, before the start of the campaign, participants who open a special transaction account are not allowed to spend that money, and that is the subject of protection," said Kondarko.

As regards the electoral law, he noted that the SEC updates the Voter's List regularly four times a year.

"It is available on the SEC's website. Citizens can check their data online at any time. According to the law, the data for the Voter's List is submitted by the Ministry of Interior, as it is the only institution in the country that has the population register. After we receive this data, under Article 43 of the law, it is further processed by the State Statistical Office. Which means that the Voter's List goes through several institutions, one filter for verification. So far, we have not had any problems with the Voter's List," Kondarko said.  

On the fingerprint devices, he said since they were introduced, there have been no issues in terms of their functioning.

"In the past election cycles, since the introduction of fingerprint devices in 2021, there have been no issues in terms of the functioning of the devices. We have hired an expert group of IT professionals, professors, IT experts from the Ministry of Interior who, on election day and on the day of the results, take care of the maintenance and security of the system. We check and test the IT devices. In the coming period, a completely new composition of the electoral boards will be selected. We test the batteries just in case, successively as consumables. We will ensure fully functional application," Kondarko said. 

He noted that how soon the results will be announced depends on how soon the electoral boards compile the minutes. He hopes that there will be no issues with the announcement of the results.

Photo: print screen