In a rather shocking fashion, the opposition party (SDSM) gathered 350,000 votes (double from the previous elections) in a historic high voter turnout. The elections ended without any incidents, and to make things even more surprising, the vicious opponents (VMRO & SDSM) barking at each other just hours ago, had compliments for each other near midnight as the SDSM congratulated the VMRO-DPMNE on their electoral victory. Baffling how nice they were to each other. Someone is going to Hollywood!
There were no disputes from the SDSM, in fact they were thrilled to lose the way they did. Radmila Sekerinska and Branko Crvenkovski appeared with ear-to-ear smiles as if they had just won the elections. Why wouldn't they smile, the SDSM has just doubled their parliament seats from 20 to 40, at the very least. Official numbers will be known Monday morning.
So why didn't the ruling government win in a convincing fashion as was the case three years ago when the opposition was embarrassed by being beaten with a ratio of 3:1.
The answer is simple. Too many changes for the Macedonian citizens in too short of a time-frame. The EU has been trying to convince Greeks they must be paying taxes and not steal for decades, while Gruevski wanted to do the same in two years and succeded, which at the end ended up costing the ruling Government 150,000 votes. Regardless, the Government still came out on top.
Previously Macedonians' salary was taxed upwards of 38%, with a little catch, the taxes never appeared on their paychecks. The communists were smart. This created an imprint in the mindset of the common citizen that they aren't paying taxes even though they were overpaying. The last 17 years the Macedonian citizen never heard a Government official utter the word "budget". Thousands of shop owners were selling liquor without a license, and paid no taxes. These are also some of the problems that plague our southern neighbor.
The only major infrastructure done in Macedonia was after the earthquake in 1963, therefore it is not surprising that crumbling infrastructure dotted every city and village in Macedonia.
When the current Government took over almost for years ago, they announced a budget for everything (highways, sport arenas, hospitals, schools..). They made sure every shop issues a receipt, pays taxes and if selling alcohol pays a 'liquor license'. Although these laws apply in every western nation, they irritated thousands of small business owners because they came out of 'nowhere' during a short time-frame. Some shop owners tried to evade the laws by for example selling alcohol under the counter only to get caught and end up paying 1-2000 euros fine. What the Macedonian business owners failed to understand (just like the Greeks) is that their taxes are paying for spectacular Stadiums, beautiful bridges, new highways, health care, 15 million trees planted, cable-car systems, new buses... the list is endless.
SDSM's campaign during the election was simple: They promised citizens 'if you vote for us, we'll go back to the way it was before'. Scary, but true. This was SDSM's moto. Although, there seem to be people who want to go back to the old ways as we saw tonight, the majority said "No", and gave their vote of confidence to the ruling Government for another mandate. // Gorazd V.
