NGO Parliament

Opposition to all political parties 

The First NGO Parliament is supposed to have its second meeting in March. The NGO Parliament was established after the NGO elections in the Republic of Macedonia (December 2003-January 2004) and had its constitutional meeting on 31 January 2004. As its founders say, "the NGO Parliament is not in a position to elect or dismiss governments of countries or elect heads of countries, but it can organize itself in mass and string associations that will act like correctors of the official government in the country". The Parliament has 120 delegates and it consists of 208 civic organizations in the country, whose representatives are part of the established government and the government bodies and organs. The NGO Parliament has its own president, and four vice-presidents and a secretary will be elected at the second meeting. Ten commissions of twelve members will also be established. The founders of the NGO Parliament are hoping that it will not be divided into position and opposition, but as a whole, it will present an opposition to all political parties. The founders also emphasize that the members of the NGO Parliament are not organized with the aim of creating a parallelism or a rating for a certain political organizing or political elections, but their determination is to offer the citizens more active participation in the system institutions and in the work of the Macedonian Parliament. This is considered a "step forward in modernizing the Legislative home and a step forward in approaching the big European family. It is also expected that this type of civic associating will lead to a greater strengthening of the sector, as well as strengthening the civic organizations' capacities. NGO Parliament will be the voice of the Macedonian people, a medium through which citizens' proposals and needs will be initiated and followed to the Macedonian Parliament and the Legislation home. The people's political representatives are expected to pay more attention to the citizens' needs, while the civic organizations and the citizens will carefully observe the realization of the their needs.

The non-governmental parliamentary elections have been organized on the principle of delegacy in eight regions in Macedonia, where at town and regional convention 120 delegates were elected on lists, proposed by the citizens and civic organizations. On the lists one could find candidates from the civic sector who do not have a political history. The President of the Parliament proposed a mandatory for a constitution of a Commissary (the Government) that will be elected at the second meeting of the NGO Parliament. The Commissary should have 18 to 20 sectors and will be managed by a counsellor and two vice-counsellors.

Some of the organizations that initiated the establishment of the NGO Parliament are: the Youth Information Centre - Tetovo; Multiculture - Tetovo; Tolerance - Struga; Youth Cultural Centre - Bitola; Centre for Interethnic Tolerance and Refugees - Skopje; SPPMD- Kavadarci; KHAM - Delcevo; DROM - Kumanovo; CMK- Skopje, etc.

 

K.B.