Macedonia MP's Boycott Faces Parliament With Dilemma

After Macedonia held a constituent session of the new parliament on Saturday without opposition MPs, legislators from the ruling coalition are mulling how to fill key parliamentary bodies that require opposition MPs' presence.

By law, the heads of two commissions that monitor the work of the secret police and the intelligence agency are drawn from the ranks of opposition MPs. So is the head of the commission on human rights.

But, currently only 88 of the 123 MPs are present and at work, seven of whom come from the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA.

“This represents a real problem and we are mulling what to do if the opposition remains outside parliament,” one legislator from the ruling VMRO DPMNE party-led coalition told Balkan Insight off the record.

“One option would be to leave these commissions empty, as not many commissions legally require opposition members. Another would be to ask DPA legislators to step in,” he added.

In the case of some other commissions that traditionally are headed by opposition MPs, such as the commission that monitors the state budget, there is no actual legal requirement for an opposition parliamentarian to be in charge.

"It will be a pity not to have opposition MPs in them, but legally we face no obstacle there," the same legislator said.

Speaking after his re-election as speaker of parliament, Trajko Veljanoski on Wednesday said that “parliament's work must not be halted” by the opposition boycott.

He added that he "sincerely" wished opposition MPs would now change their minds and take up their seats.

The opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, the Liberal Democrats, LDP, and the New Social Democrats, NSDP, which together won 34...