The government of North Macedonia is taking steps to amend the Government Act abolishing the part introducing caretaker cabinets that administer the country in pre-election periods, the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) said in a statement on Tuesday. The party claimed it was not consulted about the planned amendments.
According to local media, the Minister of Public Administration, Goran Minchev, has already submitted to parliament in Skopje a bill amending and supplementing the Government Act, with a proposal for it to be reviewed under shortened procedure. The establishment of a caretaker cabinet 100 days before elections was agreed upon in Przino during the political crisis in 2015, and its abolishment was one of the main topics at the leaders’ meeting convened by North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski at the beginning of the year. The leader of SDSM did not attend, arguing that “there will be no meeting with criminals”.Â
After the meeting, the leader of the largest Albanian party, Democratic Union for Integration, Ali Ahmeti, said the issue should be consulted with the country’s international partners from the EU and the United States, who were co-authors of the 2015 Przino Agreement aimed at overcoming the political crisis at the time.
Arguments behind the proposed amendments state that the caretaker governments, established ahead of every general election, was created as a legal model or temporary solution under conditions of political and institutional crisis, and was intended to ensure consensus for organizing and conducting the electoral process. Although it played a certain stabilizing role in a specific historical context, its continued application over time has proven dysfunctional and financially unjustified, Sloboden Pechat reported.
According to the media outlet, the caretaker government, in which ministers and deputy ministers are additionally appointed, duplicates competencies and complicates decision-making procedures, directly affecting the efficiency, accountability, and continuity of governance, while also leading to additional budget expenditures.
SDSM opposes any attempt to abolish the caretaker government, saying it is “a direct attack on democracy and free elections”.
“The caretaker government must remain because it is the last institutional line of defence against crimes during the electoral process and the only guarantee for fair and democratic elections,” SDSM said.