It Is Not True That the Name of the SEC Is Written First In Albanian, Then In Macedonian

The photo in the post shows only half of the panel behind the members of the State Election Commission. When the entire panel is looked at, it can be seen that on the left side, first in Macedonian, in Cyrillic, is written the name of the state institution responsible for conducting the elections

In a Facebook post, an attempt is made to cause intolerance among the citizens who speak different languages in the country, by manipulating that on the panel with the name of the state body – State Election Commission, Macedonian is the third language in the column and before it is the Albanian and Vlach language. As an illustration, to “prove” this claim, the author of the post uses a photo from a television broadcast of a press conference of the SEC for the local elections 2021.

However, the photo is “in half”, i.e. it shows only half of the panel behind the members of the State Election Commission. When the entire panel is looked at, it can be seen that on the left side, first in Macedonian, in Cyrillic, is written the name of the state institution responsible for conducting the elections.

It is also evident on the SEC website that the panel with its name is in several languages, the first of which is Macedonian written with Cyrillic alphabet.

The name is written in Macedonian on the left side and in Albanian on the right side. The name is written not only on the panel behind the desk where the members and the president sit for press conferences but also in the institution in general, as can be seen from this photo.

The Law on the Use of Languages ​​in Article 1 stipulates that in all state government bodies in the Republic of North Macedonia, central institutions, public enterprises, agencies, directorates, institutions and organizations, commissions, legal entities exercising public authority in accordance with law and other institutions, the official language, in addition to the Macedonian language and its alphabet, is the language spoken by 20% of the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and its alphabet, in a manner determined by this Law.

Article 7 of this law states that the names of the institutions and their regional units in the local self-government units in which at least 20% of the citizens speak an official language other than Macedonian and in Skopje, shall be written in Macedonian and its Cyrillic alphabet and in the language spoken by at least 20% of the citizens and its alphabet, as well as in English.

The names shall be written in the same size and font, and the name written in Macedonian language and alphabet shall be first.

Article 15, on the other hand, stipulates that at the sessions of the State Election Commission and the Municipal Election Commissions in Skopje and the local self-government units in which at least 20 % of the citizens speak an official language other than Macedonian, when conducting elections in the work and procedures of all commissions, and other bodies and institutions shall equally use the Macedonian language and its Cyrillic alphabet and the language spoken by at least 20% of the citizens and its alphabet.

Hence, the issue of the order of the name in different languages of institutions that include the State Election Commission is legally regulated. In this case, the name of SEC is written correctly and in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the Use of Languages. Despite the false claim in the post we are reviewing, on the panel in the SEC the name is written in several languages, the first of which is Macedonian with Cyrillic alphabet.

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