Indeed! EU's double standards: The referendum in Macedonia is successful with 36,9%, but failed in Catalonia with 43%.
US State Department endlessly trolled after idiotic remarks on Macedonian Referendum | MINA Report
The US State Department (the same people who cherish America’s close friendship with Germany that started on D-day) needed 9 hours to put together a statement after it became known that the Macedonian Referendum suffered an epic debacle.
During these 9 hours, nobody in Brussels issued a comment because they awaited what the plantation owner on Floor 7 at the State Department will say before they can use their Twitter accounts.
And then it happened: An intern at the State Department tweeted that they welcomed the referendum vote. Oh good, I was certainly getting concerned, what if they didn’t welcome it? The plantation owner concluded that the will of the people who voted ‘yes’ should be considered, the majority who boycotted, well, the majority is not important particularly if Prime Minister Jess Baily can’t bribe them with $45 million dollars.
Finally, after the State Department coughed up their usual nonsense, the cretins in Brussels got the green light to tweet the same comments. Norwegian cab driver Jens Stoltenberg, the Zaev of NATO who famously held a speech in a parking lot in a Skopje suburb in front of 7 people was quick out of the gates.
However, the tweets from Brussels abruptly stopped after merciless trolling from all parts of the world. In addition, the headlines from around the world certainly did not help the plantation owner.
But we understand. You had to come up with your delusional press release (which Trump rightfully calls Fake News) to justify the fact the US Embassy spent $45 million only in the last 30 days to ensure “Referendum success” by bribing individuals, ‘journalists’, MPs, businessmen, judges, athletes, actors, singers, TV stations, radio stations… and over $150m since 2016. To quote a Macedonian journalist: “The US Embassy is by far the best thing for Macedonia’s economy, they have given cash to so many people“.
It’s time for Prime Minister Jess Baily to step down. The man has hired and surrounded himself with quite the idiots. Zaev, Dimitrov? That’s the best you could hire? All Macedonians expect much more from their Prime Minister. Baily, accept responsibility for the Referendum fiasco.
SDSM and DUI stuffed over 80,000 ballots during Referendum debacle | MINA Report
The SDSM and DUI are responsible (again) for stuffing the ballot boxes at 12 municipalities primarily in western Macedonia during the referendum fiasco in which huge majority of the citizenry boycotted the renaming of the country.
Although we have become accustomed to election fraud by SDSM and DUI, the same was once again repeated during the Referendum vote, particularly after 5pm in an effort to increase the terrible turnout.
The best and most glaring example was the municipality of Saraj which underwent massive ballot stuffing after 5:00pm.
Saraj: registered voters 31,113
Until 5:00pm – 11,120 (numbers later, much later, tweaked by SEC to 16,867)
Polls closed in Saraj: Total votes given 21,038. This means, mathematically every 11 seconds a vote was cast in Saraj after 5pm. This is physically impossible, which lead us to conclude between 6 and 8,000 votes were stuffed in ballot boxes in Saraj alone. This was a DUI operation, of course in coordination with SDSM.
Precisely the same fraud unfolded in Lipkovo, Aracinovo, Chair, Centar, Bogovinje, Gostivar, Karposh and Zelino where there is a sudden illogical (illegal) 300-400% increase in votes after 5pm. While normal person would expect on a Sunday the voting to completely subdue after 5pm, not in Macedonia where in several places simply tripled! Apparently superman flew in and out of each polling station, casting votes every 11 seconds!
At each location between 6 and 8000 ballots were stuffed.
With a minor effect there was stuffing at most locations, but not as over the top obvious as the ones mentioned above. The real Referendum turnout is between 18-22%.
The SEC now led by (allegedly) DPNE official Oliver Derkovski functions just the same as it functioned under SDSM’s Chichakovski. During elections Chichakovski would simply disappear in the most critical moments for hours (kidnapped by the US Embassy) and would return explaining that he went for a nap while the election results were just about to be announced! Similar situation occurred under Derkovski.
The DPNE president of SEC said one thing during a press conference while the SEC showed different numbers which would change them repeatedly making numerous errors in the process – the percentages never matched with votes, and the votes did not match with actual results.
The Macedonian public has at this point zero trust in the SEC.
Multiple political parties have announced they will sue the SDSM & DUI for fraud (ballot stuffing) during the Referendum. Others have sued Zaev for asking business owners to bribe their employees to go out and vote. The minor challenge is Zaev’s public prosecutor appears to be on a two year vacation and is not interested in any case pending against the SDSM or Zaev.
The Junta gathers: Ok, lets, lets try to smile, we have to do it, do you hear me? | MINA Report
Listen in on the conversation at the start of the video between SDS officials who appear crushed after the Referendum debacle. Nobody wants to be in front of a camera… enjoy! DUI and BESA ballot stuffers couldn’t muster the courage to be on camera, refused to show up… that pretty much says it all.
Macedonian Opposition Claims Victory in Name Change Vote Citing Low Turnout
Macedonia's opposition has won as the turnout at the referendum on the country's name change was considerably lower than the legally required 50-percent threshold, Dr. Janko Bachev, the president of United Macedonia opposition party, told Sputnik.
The majority of the people who showed up to vote on Sunday backed the name change, but the turnout was around 37 percent, according to the State Election Commission, which is less than the 50 percent needed to validate the results of a non-binding referendum. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev nevertheless said that the result signalled a triumph of democracy and of a "European Macedonia," and pledged to proceed with the name change.
"Yesterday, we defeated the puppet government controlled by the foreign center… Although the puppet-government wants to twist the truth and present the referendum as successful, the truth is that turnout was very low and the referendum has completely failed," Bachev, who led the campaign to boycott the referendum, said.
Bachev said his party's observers recorded a turnout figure of less than 33 percent. The opposition politician alleged that there was illegal voting in some places with a large Albanian population in the afternoon.
According to Bachev, the majority of Macedonians were not interested in EU or NATO membership which would open up for the country if it changes its name and thus resolves the dispute with Athens.
Dr. Janko Bachev also said that the country's government might be planning to bribe 10 Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) lawmakers to ensure that the country's constitutional name change is backed by the parliament.
The VMRO-DPMNE coalition, which opposed the name change, holds 51 seats in a 120 seat parliament. The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, a strong supporter of the name change deal with Greece, has 49 seats. According to Bachev, SDSM and the Albanian parties represented in the parliament together could gather 70 lawmakers’ votes, while 80, or two-thirds of the total, are needed to amend the constitution.
"We have information that they plan to bribe 10 VMRO-DMNE MPs, for 2 million euros each [about $2.3 million]," Bachev, who led the campaign to boycott the vote, said.
Bachev said the opposition had a plan to prevent this from happening.
"We must win this fight since it’s not a fight for leaders and power but a fight for a survival of our people," the president of United Macedonia said, adding that Macedonia’s historically great name should not be taken from it and erased from the world map.
Zaev said he might call for snap election if the parliament failed to approve the name change deal after Sunday's referendum on the matter failed to reach the 50-percent turnout threshold.
Bachev pointed out, however, that the prime minister would have to resign 100 days before the election, and opposition VMRO-DPMNE would then gain control over several ministries.
"Most likely [outcome] is that VMRO-DPMNE will require that condition to be respected and therefore elections are most likely not to be held in November," the politician said.
In June, Macedonia and Greece signed an accord on renaming the country to the Republic of North Macedonia. The deal resolved the decades-long dispute between Athens and Skopje over the use of "Macedonia," which is also the name of a region in Greece. The Macedonian parliament ratified the deal on name change in July, paving the way for the September 30 referendum on the country's NATO and EU membership. The possibility of accession was earlier impossible due to the naming dispute.
Macedonia's failed referendum is blow to Western lobbyists, but govt will seek to join NATO anyway
Protesters shout out slogans about boycotting the referendum on changing the country's name that would open the way for it to join NATO and the European Union in Skopje, Macedonia September 30, 2018. © Marko Djurica / Reuters
It's not surprising that Western leaders failed to drum up support for Macedonia's referendum, experts told RT, suggesting that Skopje's vow to ignore the result and push ahead with EU and NATO membership is even less shocking.
Despite the slew of Western dignitaries who poured into Skopje to lobby for the measure, most Macedonians chose to stay home for Sunday's non-binding referendum, which would have opened the door for EU and NATO membership.
Some 90 percent voted in support of the referendum, which asked: "Are you for EU and NATO membership by accepting the agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Greece?" but with around 36 percent turnout, the results were invalidated.
Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said after the vote that he remains committed to renaming the country North Macedonia, resolving a name dispute with neighboring Greece and paving the way for EU and NATO membership.
The underwhelming turnout, coupled with the government's defiant pledge to carry on with the name change despite its unpopularity, highlights the deep divide between the country's people and its political elite, analysts told RT. They said that the dismal result is a kick in the teeth to Western leaders and top officials who visited the country ahead of the ill-fated vote.
Western meddling?
While the incredibly low turnout presents an unexpected setback for Zaev, it's also a defeat for his Western sponsors, Elena Guskova, head of the Modern Balkan Crisis Studies Center of the Slavic Studies Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RT.
Enormous efforts were taken by Brussels and Washington to make Macedonia's accession to the European bloc, and the famously offensive defensive alliance, as seamless as possible. Just in the past week alone, a deluge of Western dignitaries graced the Macedonian capital, including German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also paid their respects earlier this month.
The "pro-Western" Macedonian prime minister relied upon the help of Washington and Brussels to push through the referendum and resolve the name issue with Athens, Guskova said.
"It is very important for the West to unweave this knot and to remove the influence Russia can potentially exert on Macedonia. That is why [the West] strived so much for this referendum to succeed."
Ironically, Defense Secretary Mattis accused Moscow of meddling in Macedonia's internal affairs during his visit to Skopje, and already, accusations have surfaced that Russia "sought to prevent the Macedonians from going to the polls."
"They de facto blame Russia for the low turnout," Guskova noted, adding that the "humiliating" name change was the real motivating factor behind the referendum result.
The blame game may also be motivated by wounded pride: the West's sudden and intense interest in Macedonia – Merkel's visit marked the first time a German chancellor had travelled to the country, for example – seems to have accomplished little aside from highlighting the disconnect between the country's leaders and its people.
"There is a huge discrepancy between the political elite in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and its people."Stavros Mavroudeas, professor of political economy at the Department of Economics in the University of Macedonia, told RT. "The political elite in Skopje is subservient to the Western powers – the EU and US. This creates a gap."
Turning lemons into NATO membership
Although it appears that Macedonians are less than enthusiastic about the name change, NATO and Washington have hailed the referendum's result as a victory. "I welcome the yes vote in [the Macedonia] referendum. I urge all political leaders [and] parties to engage constructively [and] responsibly to seize this historic opportunity. #NATO's door is open, but all national procedures have to be completed," Stoltenberg tweeted.
Responding to the vote, the US State Department urged Macedonia's parliament to go forward with the name change, which would require a two-thirds majority, calling on the country's lawmakers "to rise above partisan politics" and "secure a brighter future for the country as a full participant in Western institutions."
The EU's Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, echoed a similar position, telling all parties to "respect this decision and take it forward with utmost responsibility and unity across party lines."
Like so many of the "non-binding" referendums used to rubber-stamp EU and NATO membership over the past decade, it appears that the will of the people can be ignored when the political elite decide that the stakes are too high.
