The Presidentialisation of Political Parties in the Western Balkans by Gianluca Passarelli

Author:Gianluca Passarelli
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783319973524
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

4 The Level of Centralised Party Leadership and Its Changes

4.1 VMRO-DPMNE

The first president of VMRO-DPMNE Ljubco Georgievski was elected by the Constituent Assembly (held in 1990) and his term was reconfirmed at the subsequent (1995 and 1999) Party congresses. The defeat of the 2002 parliamentary election and the party and weak prospects forced Georgievski to resign. The new leader, Nikola Gruevski was elected by the party congress (in May 2003) and his mandate was reconfirmed at the Congresses held in 2007, 2011 and 2016. Unlike the first case, with Marjan Gjorchev as an opponent, in the two later cases, Gruevski was the only candidate.

In the past VMRO-DPMNE had a model of direct elections for the members of the Central Committee as well as the Municipal committees. The statutory right for the participation of the overall interested party membership enabled a formal democratic approach in the selection process until 2002 when this system was abandoned. It was replaced by a model in which the formal distribution of power comprises a strong subordination to the central leadership. It includes, amonst others, the nomination of candidates for party president done at a party congress. The party Statute provides an open possibility for the nomination of more than one candidate, but this happened only once (at the 2003 Congress) when two candidates (Gruevski and Gjorcev) ran for the position. In practice, the party’s president has substantial influence in the election process in order to secure a victory of any candidate he favours.

According to the party statute, VMRO-DPMNE’s president nominates the holders of (almost) all important party functions (candidates for vice- presidents of the party, for Secretary-General (SG) for members of the Executive Committee and for members of the Statutory and Supervisory committees. He proposes, also, the members of the Central Committee, the presidents of the Youth Union and the Union of Women, as well as the presidents of municipal committees. His role on the election results is decisive although formally they are voted in/out by the Central Committee or the other relevant organs of the Party. It should be noted that the party statute gives the president the power of a veto (he may stop the execution of the decisions and other acts of the Executive committee and of the other organs of the party and notify the Central Committee).

The process of intra-party selection of candidates for public functions proves that VMRO-DPMNE is strictly centralised. The party statute mentions nothing about it, but the procedure is regulated by appropriate regulations submitted to the intra-party organs immediately before each election cycle. Although, the lower level organisational forms are given the right to propose some candidates, the party leader has the exclusive right to make the final nomination regardless of the previous proposals. For example, whilst creating the MP candidate lists for the parliamentary election he is authorised to impose his own favourites no matter whether they are popular amongst the party membership. The municipal committees are given the right to propose those candidates, but the final decision is in the hands of the party president.

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