Skopje, 17 May 2024 (MIA) - State Election Commission president Aleksandar Dashtevski and members Radica Risteska, Oliver Ristovski, Boris Kondarko, Boban Stojanoski and Abdush Demiri expressed Friday concern over the statements by political parties and government office holders relating to the SEC activities on complaints following the parliamentary elections.

Besides being personally humiliated and insulted, we have also been exposed to unfounded and inappropriate public political pressure and threats of criminal responsibility due to the Commission's decisions, the SEC said in a statement.

Considering the context and the intensity of attacks and insults, the SEC members express their concern over their personal safety.

SEC administered the elections in a professional and transparent manner, in line with the law, as confirmed by all domestic and international factors. The SEC has also established the facts and decided on complaints in 110 polling stations, adopting only seven of them based on legal grounds, whereas the other 103 were rejected as unfounded and were not appealed, reads the statement.

Therefore, it adds, attacks, pressure and interference of certain political parties and individuals in the caretaker government in the electoral procedures, as well as the decision-making process of SEC and the Administrative Court, are unacceptable.

SEC has informed the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission chief, Ambassador Jillian Stirk, on these developments at a meeting earlier today.

On Thursday, Caretaker Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi claimed there had been an agreement in the State Election Commission (SEC) to accept certain complaints regarding the election results that would lead to a revote, saying this is an attempt of electoral engineering and changing the Parliament numbers, thus cheating on the people's will. PM Xhaferi told a press conference that the electoral process, which was assessed as credible and democratic, is now in the hands of the Administrative Court, while urging all institutions to proceed in line with the law and ignore partisan directives.

At the start of yesterday's Administrative Court public session, the Worth It coalition withdrew its appeal over the State Election Commission's (SEC) decision to reject their complaint for a polling station in village Dolna Banjica in Gostivar municipality. The Administrative Court decided to terminate the proceedings.

SEC received 27 complaints regarding the voting process at the May 8 parliamentary elections, and accepted seven of them - six in the fifth election district and one in the sixth election district.

MIA file photo