Project: "Transparency and Public Scrutiny of the Judicial Proceedings in the Election-Related Criminal Cases"

Period of implementation: September 2009 – April 2010

Project objectives:

• To contribute to democratic election process and rule of law in Republic of Macedonia
  
• To address institutional and legal shortcomings found during the processing of these judicial proceedings
  
• To identify any needs for institutional and legislative reform
  
• To increase the level of trust of the citizens in the legal system and the judiciary

Project activities

• Monitoring of judicial proceedings
  
• Conducting 3 workshops with the Academy for training of judges and public prosecutors of the Republic of Macedonia
  
• Conducting interviews with the relevant actors in the judicial proceedings (judges, public prosecutors and defense attorneys)
  
• Preparation of a periodical narrative report
  
• Preparation of a periodical progress report (based on data collected from the monitoring questionnaires in the period September – December 2009) more>>>
  
• Presentation of the periodical report in the public (press conference) and its distribution/dissemination
  
• Preparation of a final report in which the findings collected in the course of the monitoring of the judicial proceedings of all election-related criminal cases.
  
• Press-conference intended to present the project findings.

Project: “Monitoring of Institutional Response against Election Irregularities Project”

Period of implementation: July 2008 - June 2009

Project Objectives:

• to increase the confidence of the citizens in the legal system and judiciary;
• to trigger the need of legal and institutional reforms;
• to contribute towards a fair and democratic election process;
• to address the institutional and legal shortcomings

Project activities:

• Monitoring of the court trials,
• Preparation of an Interim Narrative Report,
• Preparation of Interim Progress Report (based on the information gathered from the questionnaires in a period July - December 2008, more>>>
• Round table
• Preparation of Final report which presents data gathered in the monitoring process, for each trial in the sphere of Election Irregularities
• Press conference for presentation of outcome of the project and its dissemination.

In the Final Report will be included analysis of the all data from the questionnaires filled by trial monitors of the cases against alleged perpetrators of Election Irregularities.

Project: Monitoring the prosecution of the Local Election, 2005 related trials

Period of implementation: July - December, 2005

Project objectives:

• Assessment of the proclaimed determination of the Government and other authorities to prosecute the perpetrators who had committed the crimes against the elections and voting, during the Local election, 2005
• Identification of the problems that the judiciary faces while pursuing the perpetrators of the local election crimes and proposing legal and institutional reforms;
• Achieving successful suppression of the local election irregularities, as well as ensuring conditions for holding fair and democratic election

Project activities

• Identification of the irregularities during the local elections in 2005 and their monitoring in the pre-trial procedure and the criminal procedure more>>>
• Observation of the judicial cases of the criminal acts against the elections and the voting more>>>
• Cooperation with relevant institutions (Public Prosecutor offices, courts etc.);
• Preparation of the Final report for the situation of the election irregularities, including the conclusions and recommendations for alteration of the electoral legislation.

Contact

Aleksandar Stojanovski – Project Coordinator

e-mail: astojanovski@gmail.com

tel: +389 2 3215263

Donors:

OSCE Mission in Skopje

Foundation Open Society Institute - Macedonia