Macedonian Special Prosecutors at press conferrence in Skopje | Photo by: MIA

Macedonia’s special prosecution office has pinpointed a former interior minister and transport minister as well as the secretary general of the government as the main suspects for organizing electoral fraud during the polls in 2013.

The police minister at that time was Gordana Jankuloska, the transport minister was Mile Janakieski and the government secretary general is Kiril Bozinovski, all members of the government of VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski who stepped down as Prime Minister in January as part of the EU-brokered crisis agreement.

“The suspects….created a group tasked with committing crimes against the elections,” deputy special prosecutor Fatime Fetai said without referring to their names in Skopje.

Their motive, according to the prosecution, was “to maintain the [their ruling] party in power” as well as gaining “direct privileges for themselves,” Fetai said.

The suspects in the investigation that the Prosecution has called “Titanic” are suspected of several offences, from criminal association to violation of electoral rights, violation of the freedom of voters, bribery during elections and voting, destruction of electoral materials and misuse of assets during election campaigns.

The Special Prosecution said it is also investigating five judges and four members of the State Electoral Commission who were active in 2013.

One person with dual Macedonian and Albanian citizenship has been detained, the prosecution said. Media reports speculate that he is a political leader of ethnic Macedonians in Albania, Edmond Temelko.

Temelko was brought into connection with the scandal after news cameras in 2013 caught ethnic Macedonians from the rural region of Pustec in Albania voting in the Macedonian capital as Skopje residents, presumably using fake IDs.

In addition, the recently formed Special Prosecution has asked for eight people to be placed in detention.

The prosecution said recordings of wiretapped conversations as well as other evidence that it had gathered clearly indicate these persons’ involvement in election fraud, which will have to be proven in court.

The Chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, told the media that she did not feel intimidated by recent criminal charges and other obstructions to her work.

“Justice will prevail despite the hardship and the threats that come from certain political parties,” she said, adding that “even if everyone [in the country] remains silent, I will not stay silent.”

The charges, the first made since the formation of the Special Prosecution in the autumn, come against a backdrop of continuing crisis in Macedonia, revolving around opposition claims that Prime Minister Gruevski ordered the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including his own ministers.

The Social Democrats started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes last February. The opposition insists the tapes contain incriminating evidence against many senior officials, including proof of high-level corruption, the government grip’s on the judiciary, prosecution, businesses and media, politically-motivated arrests and jailings, electoral violations and even an attempted cover-up of a murder of a man by a police officer.

Gruevski, who has held power since 2006, and stepped down last month under an EU-brokered agreement, says the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition to destabilise the country.