Skopje, 24 January 2024 (MIA) – The upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections on April 24 and May 8 will cost almost EUR 17 million, State Election Commission (SEC) Vice President Ditmire Shehu told a session on Wednesday which included a total of 22 itms on the agenda. 

Shehu told Wednesday's session that over EUR 6 million will be used in organizing the elections, providing confidential and non-confidential material, transport, monetary compensation for electoral bodies, i.e. members of municipal electoral commissions, electoral boards, while Mden 656 million or over EUR 10,614,000 are planned for paid political advertising in the double elections.

"More funds will be used for the presidential elections in the part of paid political advertising, because in the first round of presidential elections, all participants in the elections are entitled to EUR 2 per registered voter, that is registered voter on the Voters' List. Also, candidates in the second round of presidential elections are entitled to EUR 1 per registered voter. In the parliamentary elections, all the participants in the elections are entitled to EUR 2 each also per registered voter. Allow me to just state here that out of the total funds we requested from the Ministry of Finance, all have been provided to us, with funds only missing in the part of paid political advertising, regarding which we agreed with the Minister of Finance himself that these funds will be replenished later, because political advertising funds are paid 30 days after the final results, and this will not affect the organizing of the elections," said Shehu.

SEC members unanimously adopted 21 items on the agenda of Wednesday's session related to organizing the double elections. Commenting on the 22nd item of the agenda, SEC Vice President Shehu said the public was interested in terms of voter identification and whether SEC was ready to organize the double elections. She pointed out that SEC members and employees have been preparing for the double elections for a year, so that they take place in a fair, democratic and safe atmosphere.  

Shehu added that biometric fingerprint identification of voters will be used in line with the 2020 law. She denied reports in some news portals that she had been against such identification of voters.   

Photo: MIA