Kochani, 16 April 2024 (MIA) — Talking to voters in person is how I present my election platform but it is a shame that candidates will not commit to a public debate during this presidential election campaign, said Levica's presidential candidate Biljana Vankovska in Kochani on Tuesday.

"It is shameful for all of us not to directly confront our opponents," she said. 

"I am embarrassed for the others. I am mostly thinking of candidates who are doctors of science, professors, provoking each other and inviting each other to special debates, while ignoring everyone else. 

"All seven of us deserve equal treatment, equal media opportunities, to say what we have in our platforms, briefly and in a format standard for Western countries and all democracies. I keep saying, and appealing, that we owe it to the citizens, because they have given us 10,000 signatures and much more. 

"They expect to see us all face each other, backed by arguments and theses, and then decide who they will vote for," Vankovska said.

Regarding smear campaigns, she said she would not stoop so low as to fling insults and harsh words like some other candidates but was trying to run a positive campaign.

"I have no machinery behind me. Our campaign is modest and our machinery is the people. That's what ordinary people tell me," she said. 

She said she liked walking freely across the country without security detail. "That's the most important thing to me. Let the others fight at rallies, insulting each other like bad neighbors across a fence," Vankovska said.

"They ignore me and people like me, but I also ignore them, except that I dare them to a public debate. I am throwing down the gauntlet. MTV's studios are open for us to face each other before the campaign ends," she said. mr/