Skopje, 9 October 2024 (MIA) - Deputy PM Izet Mexhiti says the Worth It coalition is drafting a law on just and proper representation after the Constitutional Court terminated the "balancer" tool for employment in public administration based on ethnicity.

"Following the Constitutional Court decision, Worth It will immediately focus on a new solution, namely a law on just representation. We agreed with our partner (VMRO-DPMNE) that the quality of candidates for employment in the public administration should be considered, as should the just representation. Government partners have still not come to an aligned solution on protecting the just and proper representation as a fundamental value in the Constitution, when it comes to employment in public administration," Deputy PM Mexhiti told Sloboden Pechat.

He says the Worth It coalition has drafted a law they will put for public discussion.

"We are contemplating on the introduction of a register on ethnic affiliation in public administration, in order to prevent abuses such as a person declaring to be an ethnic Albanian during the employment process and afterwards going back to being ethnic Macedonian, for example. However, we should be careful of not intruding into the employees' privacy. There are several proposals, such as a statement on ethnicity verified by a notary public, a ranking system of candidates whereby the person who is a Turk could receive 10 additional points in the call for a position that is to be filled by that ethnicity," notes Mexhiti.

He does not agree with the Constitutional Court guidelines that the public administration job ads should take quality as the deciding factor, saying just representation should also play a part, meaning that if a Bosniak is to be employed in an institution, then the best-ranked Bosniak among all candidates should be selected.

"If a way is not found to carry out employments in line with the just representation, then we will challenge this before the Constitutional Court. Worth It will not accept any tendency, even the slightest one, to disregard just representation," says Mexhiti.

The Deputy PM adds that all stakeholders in the country have said that the "balancer" tool was not operational anymore and was abused for many years.

MIA file photo