by Zoran FIDANOSKI and Ljubisa CVETKOSKI
In Negotino, during the whole day of the election, the DPMNE and DA party soldiers tried in all sorts of ways to force the citizens to vote for their candidate, Aco Trenev. Directors and managers of state-owned companies and some factories, organized transport of employees to the polling booths and threatening that those who voted against the government's candidate would lose their jobs. The coordinator of the municipal DPMNE committee, Ljupco Sokolov, who is otherwise the director of the Medical Center in Negotino, at one polling booth knocked out one of the observers of the coalition "Citizens for Citizens". When none of that produced desired results, as the residents of Negotino were obviously supporting the opposition, the pro-government activists smashed four ballot boxes.
In Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski's birth place, Delcevo, the DPMNE activists worked hard to secure the victory of their candidate, Police sheriff Ilco Iliev. Voters were offered money - hundred German Marks for a vote, at some polling booths food was on offer, and many voters were also threatened with loss of job if they voted for the "wrong" candidate.
In Berovo unprecedented agitation occurred on the very election day. The deputy director of the Privatization Agency, Dusko Avramski threatened all those "marked" as opposition supporters. During that time, the favorite of Snezana Georgievska [Prime Minister's wife], the owner of "Zegin", Blagoj Mehandziski, spent Sunday in the village of Rusinovo where, according to Start's sources, eyewitnesses, the villagers were invited to drink and eat for free in his shop and were also distributed food for free. Employees of the logging company were distributed specially marked pens by their director Todorce Cikarski, so that it could later be established whom they voted for.
Unprecedented pressures, agitation, violations of mandatory electoral "silence" and violence by the authorities also took place in Radoviste. The tension in the town was palpable during the whole day, and four opposition controllers requested medical assistance, as they had been "treated" to caresses with baseball bats by the DPMNE storm troopers.
Nevertheless, the Strumica had the most exciting second round of elections east of the Vardar river.
The fight was between Kiril Partenov, the candidate of the united opposition and Kiril Janev, the candidate of the ruling DPMNE and DA. In the first round, the opposition candidate was ahead by 612 votes. That, apparently, was a sufficient justification for what happened on Sunday. The tense atmosphere and pressures on voters could be felt starting with the early morning. Besides teams of journalists, but with different motives and in much larger numbers, the town was full of muscular young men wearing black and dark gray T-shirts. They were the storm troopers of the authorities, loaded in about fourteen vehicles without number plates. Most of the "activists" were not from Strumica, which was confirmed by the residents who to the last agreed that they "haven't seen them before". True, in every vehicle there was one local DPMNE "guide", who knew the terrain and showed the way. We have found out that the cars had been "borrowed" for a limited time, some from the Telecom, some from the State Security Service, and some from the Strumica Police, while some of them were even "imported" and brought specially for that day from Bulgaria! Most of the "square jaws", claim residents of Strumica, had arrived to the town the previous night and stayed in the hotel "Emperor Samuil" in Bansko. The guests were from Bulgaria and Skopje, but there were also some from Tetovo. One middle-aged resident of Strumica jokingly concluded: "Suddenly, the people were overcome by the desire to visit the town under Ograzden, to buy beans and peppers for pickles and a bottle of Strumica mastic liquor or two. Strumica is a well-known tourist destination. Especially on the election day!"
The Start team was prevented from arriving in time at the scene of the incident, in front of the Church "Holy fifteen martyrs from Tiveropol" by the Police patrol, which applied its batons in a very "friendly" manner. The fight had already finished by the time we managed to get thorough. However, that did not prevent one nun dressed in black to lean through the open window of our car and scream as loudly as she could: "If the SDSM comes to power, the Turks will rape all of us!" The people in the settlement were still disturbed and prepared to talk.
According to the witnesses, the groups of "blackshirts" included the people from the Bulgarian security company "Multigrup" who were recruited thanks to personal connections of the mayoral candidate Janev. He is otherwise the owner of the textile company "Geras Cunev". He bought the company exactly with the cash provided by "Multigrup", via the Balkan Bank. The factory was estimated at $2.5 million, but no one knows for how much money it was sold apart from those who actually paid for it, of course. On that election day in Strumica witnesses also spotted some of Boris Trajkovski's personal bodyguards. Trajkovski later publicly admitted that, but claimed that only one of his bodyguards (Goran) had been in Strumica; then some of Ljupco Georgievski's bodyguards, as well as unavoidable 'activists' provided by the deputy chief of the State Security Service, Ljube Boskovski, were also spotted. The latter were the men from the Skopje security company "Kometa", which during the last two years has been transformed into a virtual state security bureau.
Teams of journalists, including the Start team, almost ended up in trouble in "Gjupsko" settlement. Immediately after our arrival we were accosted by an "activist" of the DPMNE with a mobile phone in his hands. He asked what we wanted there and told us that we first had to get a "permit" from "his people". While we went to the polling booth 1731 where the incident took place, the "activist" talked to someone on the phone. Only a few minutes later, cars without number plates blocked out way by shutting down all three streets that could be used to leave the settlement. About twenty angry "blackshirts" got out of the cars, and headed straight for us. "Get out of here! Now!" they ordered. To our naïve question "Why?" they responded with a threat. "Beat it and do not even think about coming back, if you want to live!" During this close encounter between journalists and the black clad racketeers, the Police stood only some twenty meters away, but did not even try to get involved.
The headquarters of the two candidates and two coalitions that supported them worked throughout the day at full steam, but in very different manners. While the opposition headquarters at all times sought contacts with journalists, regardless of the media they represented and presented all the information at their disposal regarding the turnout of voters, incidents etc., the DPMNE headquarters, located in the building facing the city hall, where the Municipal Electoral Commission was also housed, was secured by about twenty "activists" and journalists were not allowed access to it. Apart from those from the pro-government media.
In the afternoon, between 6 and 7 p.m., towards the end of the voting, the deputy minister for internal affairs [Police], Rifat Elmazi, was spotted in the town. And that is precisely the most critical part of the election, when according to the practice from the last year and the first round of elections, ballot boxes are stuffed and results forged. Obviously the deputy-minister was here in control to make sure that everything was going according to the plan.
And thus, with pressures, threats, beatings, and shooting, racketeers of the DPMNE, "Multigrup" and "Kometa" won a "victory" for the authorities, even before the votes were counted. Satisfied by the successfully completed job, DPMNE "activists", together with the candidate Kiril Janev, went to celebrate in the café-bar "Hit". Carried away by the "victory" they fired bursts of fire from automatic guns into the sky above Strumica the whole night. And thus, democratically, until early in the morning...