The New York Times

Monday, December 06, 1999

Observers See Vote-Rigging in Macedonia Poll

By Reuters

SKOPJE (Reuters) - International observers said on Monday they had found evidence of widespread vote-rigging at some polling stations in a partial rerun of Macedonia's presidential election.

The observers' findings appeared to back up at least some complaints by the opposition Social Democrats, who alleged that the victory of center-right candidate Boris Trajkovksi was illegal because the election had been manipulated.

Sunday's partial rerun was the Balkan state's third attempt to elect a president in five weeks. It was ordered after allegations of vote-rigging in a second round run-off between Trajkovksi and Social Democrat Tito Petkovski last month.

As the vast majority of the polling stations where irregularities were suspected are in areas where ethnic Albanians predominate, the controversy has placed fresh strains on relations between them and Macedonia's Slav majority.

``Whilst the election proceeded smoothly in some polling stations, it is clear that in others serious breaches of the law occurred,'' said Mark Stevens, the head of a monitoring team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Stevens was careful to note that clear improvements had been made in some polling stations in the former Yugoslav republic, which has been an island of relative stability in the turbulent Balkans since gaining independence in 1991.

``However, in other polling stations, there was widespread ballot-stuffing and multiple voting, resulting in voter turnout figures which in some instances appear unrealistic,'' he told a news conference in the capital Skopje.

The vote-rigging would have to have been very widespread to change the victor, as Trajkovski had a winning margin of about 70,000 votes, according to unofficial results.

WESTERN OFFICIALS SEE TRAJKOVSKI AS RELIABLE PARTNER

Western officials view Trajkovski, a 43-year-old deputy foreign minister, as likely to be a reliable and constructive partner in a country which serves as a base for thousands of NATO troops supporting peacekeepers in neighboring Kosovo.

The OSCE election observers said they could not say exactly how prevalent the manipulation had been as they had seen only a sample of what was happening at all the polling stations.

Around 160,000 people, the great majority of them ethnic Albanians, were eligible to vote in the reruns. Only Trajkovski was likely to win substantial support from them, analysts said.

The OSCE's findings seemed set to add to the already poisonous political climate surrounding the election.

``I cannot congratulate my opponent. He does not have moral credibility nor is he legally elected,'' Petkovski said on Monday. ``This process is seriously damaging the basic national and state interests.''

Western governments had found the original run-off to have been generally in order and several diplomats had said they believed the rerun had seen a marked improvement in some areas.

Stevens noted that reruns had only been necessary at 230 of Macedonia's 2,973 polling stations.

``Yesterday we were talking about problems in another fraction of those seven percent,'' he said. ``I think it would be unfair to dismiss a relatively good national process for the sake of what is coming down to a smaller and smaller percentage of polling stations.''