All this is taking place in an atmosphere in which only 1 per cent of citizens, according to last year’s IRI survey, fully trust the judiciary, and as international reports, such as the latest, by Freedom House, note setbacks in the fight against corruption.
Parties are recycling the old idea of vetting judges and prosecutors. Photo: BIRN
Recycled idea of vetting
As in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, the SDSM is recycling the old idea of vetting judges and prosecutors. But it has not explained exactly what they mean by vetting, who would conduct it and how, or whether it would be a “one-off” or more permanent process.
They insist only that the integrity of judges and public prosecutors will be checked.
The SDSM promised vetting even before they came to power in 2017, after a prolonged political crisis which saw the ousting of former PM and VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski.
But once they came to power the party did nothing to forward idea of a general re-election of judges and prosecutors, insisting that EU diplomats were urging it not to, as it might do more harm than good.
In the 2020 general elections, which the SDSM narrowly won, they regurgitated this idea, albeit now in a softer form. Their 2020 election billboards read “Purification of the judiciary” and the main narrative they pushed to win the elections was, again, “justice”.
But this time they proposed “soft” vetting – checking the property of judges and prosecutors and establishing methodologies for reviewing their work.
This time, the public was more doubtful, and popular faith in improving the rule of law crumbled even more last year when, seven months before these elections, the ruling majority passed abrupt changes to the criminal code, which exempted former officials and businessmen from criminal liability.
The DUI, the main ethnic Albanian party, has also mentioned vetting. Their election platform says they will improve the “rule of law, non-selective justice, the fight against corruption and organised crime” by “certifying” officials before they are elected to office.
They would achieve this by reviving the proposed 2020 vetting bill, which was never voted on. They suggest that future officials be checked through two filters: involvement in corruption and Russian influence. These checks would be done by an international board using, as an example, the checks for granting NATO security certificates.
Gone in the DUI program are the 2020 promises of the international revision of what they called “contentious court cases”, meaning ethnically charged cases in which they suspected that Albanians were being framed for acts of terror.
The anti-Western Left party opts for vetting as well, but they point the finger of wrongdoing at the DUI, which has spent most of the past two decades in government.
They promise a “detailed reassessment and inspection of the work and property status of people from the judiciary” in order to implement the “de-DUI-sation of the judiciary!”
The Albanian opposition “Vlen” alliance, in the part of its program called “Europeanization of justice”, announces “a temporary body of Western experts, mainly from European countries, who will be integrated into the prosecution and judicial councils”.
But to implement this change, especially in the Judicial Council, it is necessary to change the constitution, which requires a two-thirds majority.
SDSM’s 2020 election billboards reads “Purification of the judiciary” and the main narrative they then pushed to win the elections, was, again, “justice”. Archive photo: BIRN
Everyone is against corruption
The fight against corruption is one of the central points in the electoral platform of the ruling SDSM.
Most pages of the election program are devoted to describing the measures that have already been adopted, such as the Law on the Management of Confiscated Property and the provisions of the criminal code on extended confiscation, etc.
But the party fails to mention last year’s controversial changes to the criminal code that reduced the penalties for acts of corruption and made almost every case opened by the Special Prosecution expire.
In their program, they claim their “dedicated work” helped North Macedonia to climb higher in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.
The opposition VMRO-DPMNE, in its program, announces a “front” against corruption. In their first 100 days of government, they will form a government body coordinating the fight against corruption, which will include state institutions.
However, an interdepartmental body for the coordination of anti-corruption activities in the government already exists.
They pledge to strengthen the competence of the State Anti-corruption Commission. In their public appearances, they have repeated that DUI officials were corrupt, and that after winning the election, their goal will be to form a new government without the DUI.
On the one hand, VMRO-DPMNE promises an independent judiciary. On the other, they propose a review of the work of the Special Prosecution, an institution that has been dead for four years, with most of its cases either rendered expired or concluded.
Since it was ousted from power in 2017, the party has insisted that most of the cases that the Special Prosecution opened against their former officials were “politically motivated”.
In the same fashion, the party still denies instigating that year’s bloody rampage in parliament, which was widely seen as a last-ditch effort to cling to power, by preventing the formation of a new government. They deem those convicted for instigating or participating in the violence “political victims” as well.
VMRO-DPMNE also promise digitization, which would reduce corruption in the toll system, in urban planning, and in the process of getting permits for firearms.
The Left party promises a fight against corruption with radical measures, such as “inserted agents provocateurs” – although the Law on Criminal Procedure, adopted in 2010 and still valid, already contains provisions that permit “undercover investigation persons” to bust corruption.
They are also calling for a revision of the privatization process from the 1990s, even though more than three decades have passed since then.
They would introduce a new criminal offence, dubbed “abuse of the EU flag”, which would punish those who pass laws in parliament under speedy procedure, falsely justifying them as an urgent EU requirement. They say they would revive in the domestic courts the so-called “Hague cases” stemming from the country’s 2001 armed conflict, which were never processed thanks to political deals.
The Left also promises a completely new criminal code, although a working group established by the Ministry of Justice has already drafted one.
To curb corruption, the DUI proposes that new employees in the Interior Ministry will have to submit statements about their property status. It also promises money for specialized prosecutors, digital forensics analysts, introducing licenses for urban planning, etc
The opposition ZNAM party, in its modest pre-election program, written on few pages, has not devoted much space to corruption. Among several measures, they announce that corruption will be deemed non-statutory, meaning that corruption cases cannot expire.
Most of the envisaged changes would need a near-impossible two-thirds majority in parliament. Photo: BIRN
Many reforms would need a two-thirds majority
The Social Democrats’ program includes all the recommendations from the report of the EU evaluation mission on the Judicial Council: exclusion of the Justice Minister and the President of the Supreme Court from the work of the Judicial Council, in order to avoid internal and external influences, is one of them.
But for that to happen, it is necessary to change the constitution, which requires a two-thirds majority.
After a series of scandals the EU made 40 recommendations to reform North Macedonia’s Judicial Council, the body in charge of appointing, promoting, dismissing and disciplining judges.
“The justice system is at a critical point,” the European Union’s envoy to North Macedonia, David Geer, said then.
The Social Democrats are also advocating the public election of members of the Judicial Council through interviews in parliament, similar to the election of members of the State Anti-Corruption Commission.
They also want to see Judicial Council members elected by a two-thirds majority in parliament instead of a simple majority
VMRO-DPMNE’s program announces radical measures in the judiciary. They will dissolve the Judicial Council and the Council of Public Prosecutors and propose legal changes for the election of new members.
They do not explain how they plan to do that, because it is almost impossible to dismiss the entire Judicial Council, because half of its members are judges chosen by the judges themselves and not by parliament.
In an interview for “360 degrees” political talk show, the international secretary of VMRO-DPMNE, Stefan Andonovski, explained that they were not going to axe the entire Judicial Council, but only the five members proposed by the parties and the president and elected by parliament. The body has 11 members.
The Justice Ministry established a work group last year to amend the Law on the Judicial Council and is working intensely on this.
VMRO-DPMNE promises “strict and objectively measurable criteria”, which future Judicial Councill members proposed by parties and the President must meet.
They also propose many changes to the laws on criminal and civil procedure, and a completely new Law on Public Prosecution – but such changes will again need the support of 80 MPs.
ZNAM’s program, in the part on the judiciary, promises digitization and an increase in the salaries of staff in judicial bodies by 30 per cent.
The DUI widely describe themselves as advocating an independent judicial system. But the measures they propose, such as appeals in disciplinary procedures for judges and prosecutors and criteria for evaluating career advancement, have already been in place for years.
The Left party proposes that judges have a limited mandate, instead of a permanent one. But for this measure, it is also necessary to change the constitution. In other words, they will again need 80 MPs to fulfill this promise.
They would need the same two-thirds majority to introduce a citizen’s jury in North Macedonian courts, where the jury is comprised of a group of judges.
“Vlen”, on the other hand, would introduce a specialized labour court. Here as well, a two-thirds majority would be needed to change the Law on Courts.
