List of Candidates for Members of Government – CSOs Council for Cooperation Society Published Despite Concerns and Boycott of Key CSOs

On July 20^th, 2016, the Office for Cooperation with Non-Governmental Organizations in Macedonia published the List of candidates according to the number of votes for members of the Council for Cooperation between the Government and Civil Society. During the voting procedure, a total of 192 CSOs submitted their votes, of which 128 were valid, 54 were invalid, while 10 votes were submitted after the deadline for voting. The voting procedure comes after a series of concerns of Macedonian CSOs over the sudden adoption of the Decision on the Establishment of the Council for Cooperation between the Government and Civil Society followed by a reaction by MCIC and BCSDN, as well as the urge to the Government to stop the selection process accompanied by a statement – an initiative of Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) signed by 89 CSOs. There has been no reaction or feedback by the relevant state authorities to these two MCIC led initiatives. Thereafter, the leading CSOs from Macedonia boycotted the Call for selection of candidates for members of the Council for Cooperation between the Government and Civil Society. The list is available in Macedonian language only and can be found here.