Numerous phantom voters identified by citizens in Macedonia can become an obstacle for holding a referendum on Macedonia's new name scheduled for September 30, the president of Skopje-based CIVIL - Center for Freedom NGO, Xhabir Deralla, told Sputnik on Thursday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2018) Numerous phantom voters identified by citizens in Macedonia can become an obstacle for holding a referendum on Macedonia's new name scheduled for September 30, the president of Skopje-based CIVIL - Center for Freedom NGO, Xhabir Deralla, told Sputnik on Thursday.
On Tuesday, CIVIL-Center for Freedom, which has been conducting election monitoring since 2008, in its press release announced receiving dozens complaints from citizens ahead of the referendum on phantom voters registered at their addresses. The NGO also informed about reports on the presence of deceased people in voters' registers.
"Phantom voters are actually posing an obstacle to the referendum, already. By having a surplus of entries (Names) in the Voters Register, the census is automatically higher and makes the whole process more difficult," Deralla said.
Deralla added that in the framework of the monitoring of the referendum process, the NGO will focus on such violations as abuse of power, media manipulations, fake news, hate speech as well as on cases of intimidation of voters.
"Certainly, we will remain true and objective to the end, and will provide public assessment of the referendum process. This includes the possibility of contesting the results or the conduct of the process," Deralla stressed.
Deralla noted that the NGO is closely following activities of the State Election Commission and regularly issues recommendations on how to improve the quality of its service. However he noted that the State Election Commission decides on its own whether to follow recommendations aimed to prevent violations.
An agreement on the countrys new name was signed by Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov and his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotsias on June 17. The deal ended a years-long dispute between the two countries over the use of "Macedonia," which is also the name of a region in Greece, and made it possible for Macedonia to seek NATO and EU membership.
