Media Suspicious About Legitimacy and Authority the Future President

on Apr 15, 09 • by NVO Infocentar •

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In their analysis of the initial reactions of the opposition parties and the expert community to the election of Gjorge Ivanov to the Office of the President, the media focused on two key issues – legitimacy and authority the future president will have. All media noted the weak turnout of the Albanian voters in the second round of Presidential Elections. The media paid great attention to the agreement reached by VMRO-DPMNE and DUI for cooperation in the second round of elections. That agreement was subject to special analyses motivated, on one hand, by DUI’s failure in the local elections in Tetovo and Gostivar and, on the other hand, the low turnout of Albanian voters in the Presidential Elections. Therefore, some media conclude that „Gjorge Ivanov was elected president, but without the votes for the Albanians and in spite of the agreement VMRO-DPMNE and DUI made”, because of the fact that “Ivanov (and Frčkoski) failed to win over the Albanian voters”, while “the agreement reached by the coalition partners VMRO-DPMNE and DUI was ultimate in unprincipled rape of the right to democratic and individual choice”.

Noting that the Government, Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE totally dominated and micromanaged Ivanov’s campaign, the media expressed serious doubts about the independence of the President-elect. However, there were doubts expressed about his personal political integrity and identity.

The incident on the “Macedonia” square in Skopje was used by the media for serious criticism of the violence used by the supporters of the initiative to build a church on the square who defended their cause with fists and insults. The Government and the Prime Minister were criticized for their lukewarm reaction, with media believing that “when students are getting beaten – the Prime Minister should apologize for the non-democratic environment in the country that made the incident possible”. Most media criticized the inefficient action by the Ministry of Interior (MVR), while others criticized the Government of being nationalist, xenophobic, authoritarian and totalitarian. On the other hand, it is worth noting that some media didn’t tie the ruling VMRO-DPMNE to the events on “Makedonija” square in any way or fashion, but placed all the blame on the opposition SDSM. Yet a third group of media claimed the „responsibility was shared equally by the two parties”. However, the common note for the majority of the media included in this report is that they directly, or indirectly, stood in defense of the right to protest and were opposed to any use of violence of any kind.

There was a general conclusion that the solid number of votes won by the parties and candidates that are not part of the ruling coalition and are outside the big shadow cast by VMRO-DPMNE did get the attention of the media. There was a prevailing opinion that the political mood is starting to shift and that the “citizens didn’t dismiss the option promoting a compromise (on the name dispute with Greece)”. Some media saw that as a sign of “a waking opposition”, that “for the prime minister, the time of advertisements, statues and empty rhetoric slowly, but steadily, passes away” and that “Macedonia is waking from the orange enchantment”. Other media believe that the results “reflect a picture of a party wiped out, of a formerly great party on the political scene who can’t seem to come to his senses” (referring to SDSM), i.e. that “SDSM failed in the elections in spite of the prevailing, dominant and even aggressive support in the media”.

Majority of the media commented that DUI had a “fiasco” in the elections, remaining the “the strongest party in the Albanian bloc” in terms of total number of votes and mayors, but is “truly the biggest loser in the elections”, winning only in Struga and Čair among the bigger municipalities, while it lost the control of the Polog valley, i.e. Gostiva and Tetovo. Some see the reason in the mutual support with VMRO-DPMNE which “proved a failure” so that we had a “triumph for VMRO and debacle for DUI”.

Another reason for the media to comment on DUI’s “debacle” was the fact of the“clear” victory for Sadi Bexheti in Tetovo which showed that “people may have written DPA off prematurely”. The win in the mayoral race in Tetovo was seen by the media as injection of new energy into the DPA, especially after the internal rift in the party and the leaving of a part of the membership led by Imer Selmani, then the vice-President of the party. The media noted that for the Albanian parties, the Office of the Mayor in Tetovo has the same importance as the Office of the Mayor of Skopje for the Macedonians. DPA’s success in Tetovo is related to the passive attitudes adopted by DUI, but also to numerous political deals. The media summarized and further augmented the expert view that “Selmani is a threat to DUI”, emphasing Selmani’s rising profile and the falling importance for DUI.

The NGO Info-centre, under the auspices of its “Media Mirror” project, conducted a qualitative monitoring of the media, focused on the manner in which they inform the public about the events and developments surrounding the Presidential and Local Elections 2009. The monitoring programme covers six daily newspapers and six national television broadcasters: “Večer“, „Vreme“, „Dnevnik“, „Utrinski vesnik“, „Koha“, „Nova Makedonija“, A1 TV, Kanal 5 TV, MTV1, AlSat-M TV, Sitel TV and Telma TV.

Media Mirror – Election 2009, Report No.3 (417KB)