Electoral systems and political crisis in the Republic of Macedonia

• Author: Etem Aziri - Bilal Lutfiu
• Position: Faculty of Public Administration and Political Science at the South East European University
• Pages: 179-187

179

ISSN 2410-759X

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

Balkan Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

IIPCCL Publishing, Tirana-Albania Vol. 2 No. 1

May, 2016

Electoral systems and political crisis in the Republic of Macedonia

Etem Aziri

Faculty of Public Administration and Political Science at the South East European

University

Bilal Lutfiu

Abstract

Elections and electoral systems are a factor of great importance for the functioning of

political systems and their democratization. The end of the last century brought

fundamental changes to ex socialist societies all over the old continent. Political pluralism,

democracy and market economy became the largely accepted values for ex-communist

societies. This on the other hand resulted in an increased importance of elections in all

these countries, including the Republic of Macedonia. In a strive to find the adequate

electoral system that would enable for the fulfillment of interests and requirement of

different political parties and ethnicities the Republic of Macedonia has “experimented”

with a variety of electoral models and has still not managed to address this issue in a

final manner. As will be presented in the paper the Republic of Macedonia in these two

decades of functioning as an independent country has implemented the pure majority

electoral model, the combined electoral model and the proportional model which is

being actually implemented. The main objective of this paper is to provide an overview

of the electoral cycles in the Republic of Macedonia and an analysis of the level of electoral

manipulation that has been present in almost all previous electoral cycles in the country

and that culminated in the last parliamentary elections. The intensified international

presence in terms of efforts to find ways to overcome electoral manipulation and organize

acceptable elections in accordance with European standards, thus create opportunities

to overcome the political crisis and build a functional democracy is an additional prove

that the electoral system of the Republic of Macedonia is in serious crisis. If the alleged

electoral manipulations get proved, this would imply that sovereignty has been abused

in continuity by the governing political parties, that the free right to vote has been

abused with and even more disturbing it would be proved that for years the government

has not had neither legality nor legitimacy.

Keywords: Electoral models, elections, political parties.

Introduction

Elections are one way to determine who the leaders will be. This method is more

peaceful than fighting it out, more credible in modern times than claims of divine

favor, and more systematic than estimating the loudness of noise made by various

factions at an open-air meeting. Only transfer of power from parent to offspring

can compete with elections in orderliness of procedure; and in the modern world,

elections have become a more widespread practice. The supposed goal is to have the

“people” express their will (Taagepers. 2007).

Gallagher and Mitchell determine several categories of electoral systems, as presented