Bigger Pressure on the Local Government Is Needed in order to Fulfil Its Election Promises

The citizens of the Municipality of Prilep are prepared to remind the local government about implementing the programmes and projects promised in the election programmes, with active political civic participation.

The Association for Legal Education and Transparency P.E.T. Station, organized the Second Community Forum on 20.12.2022 (Tuesday) at Kristal Palas Hotel in Prilep, with 25 citizens. During the Forum, they discussed the challenges that the parents face due to lack of kindergartens in the municipalities, the activities promised by the current local government in order to resolve this problem, as well as the need of an increased civic engagement and participation of concerned citizens in encouraging the local government to fulfil their promises.

The Project Coordinator Maja Petancheska presented the current situation in the municipality, sharing the information that the completion of the kindergarten in Tochila settlement was planned in the 2022 Prilep local government budget with a total of 44,497,000,00 denars. The opening of the kindergarten was planned for September 2022, while the construction of the new kindergarten in the settlement of Kuzman 2, as well as the construction works on part of the space of Kocho Racin primary school were not covered with the 2022 budget, which means that they will be waited for a long time.

“The lack of capacities in the kindergartens influences the employability of the citizens, who cannot look for work because the children are home, which means that their financial power is decreased”, said Jeton Imeski, a forum participant. “The lack of capacities also causes overburdening of the kindergartens, which results in lack of quality of the services, and this all influences the development of the children. We expected what was promised by the local government in the election campaign – to open new capacities to resolve this problem, but unfortunately there is still no solution”, stressed Marija Tosheva, forum participant.

P.E.T. Station association summarized the discussions of the participants and prepared conclusions and recommendations which will be submitted to the Mayor and Municipal Council of Prilep as a petition, which will be signed by all participants at the forums and other concerned citizens. Everybody agrees that there should be bigger pressure on the local government to fulfil the election promises.

The implementation of this forum is enabled by the project Support to Electoral Reforms in North Macedonia of the Swiss Government, implemented by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (ИФЕС), while the grants are administered by the Macedonian Center for International Support (MCIC).