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IRI began helping Macedonians develop their electoral system in 1990. That year and in 1994, IRI sponsored delegations to observe parliamentary elections. Both missions resulted in positive, concrete changes in Macedonian election law. The results were evident in 1998, when Macedonia held what was clearly its most effectively administered election since the country gained independence. IRI's 1993-1998 party building efforts also paid off with the first issue-oriented campaign of the post-communist period.
IRI expanded its objectives in 1993 and 1994, when it initiated work with local political party organizations. IRI training emphasized party organization building and membership recruitment, grass-roots coalition building and direct voter contact. Following the 1994 parliamentary elections, IRI also initiated a parliamentary assistance program that emphasized institutional development - building professional staffs and strengthening committee systems, for example - as well as training for new member of parliament in the nuts and bolts of effective constituent services.
As 1998 parliamentary elections approached, IRI saw an opportunity to work with Macedonia's national party organizations to develop their platform-building and political communication techniques. In particular, IRI sought to teach parties the fundamentals of conducting public opinion research and using the results of that research to build more broad-based, policy-oriented platforms. A major objective was to help the parties expand the substance of their political programs and campaigns beyond the narrow range of ethnic and nationalist issues that had characterized them previously. The results of the program exceeded IRI's expectations. The polls demonstrated that for a large majority of Macedonian citizens bread-and-butter issues related to employment, education and health care were of equal or greater importance than the polarizing issues related to ethnicity and nationalism that had dominated previous campaigns. The parties responded to this information quickly and concretely. More so than any previous campaign, the 1998 parliamentary contest engendered debate on a broad range of policy issues, representing a significant step forward for Macedonian democracy.
The war in Kosovo in 1999 created a crisis that threatened to sorely test the new government's commitment to reform and more constructive approaches to resolving inter-ethnic conflicts. In this environment, IRI shifted its program focus to address the critical need on the part of the government for training in political outreach, communications, and coalition maintenance in the midst of a crisis situation created by the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kosovo.
The outbreak of fighting between Albanian insurgency groups and the Macedonian armed forces in early 2001 put the security of the entire region at risk. Faced with the gravest threat to the existence of the country in the years since Macedonia's independence, and having been caught by surprise, the Macedonian government was ill-prepared to meet the challenge of the insurrection. Meanwhile, tensions among average citizens ran high, and daily life, even in those areas not touched by violence, was marked by palpable fear of the outbreak of war.
In an effort to maximize the relevance of its program during the period of crisis, IRI received emergency funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to conduct an intensive opinion research study aimed at shedding new light on the sources of inter-ethnic tension in Macedonia, and on possible new ways to pursue solutions to old problems. IRI conducted 12 focus groups with ethnic Albanian and Macedonian participants in six different regions of the country. IRI incorporated the findings of the research into its communications training projects for national and local political and civic leaders, while also looking for opportunities to make the information relevant to the national political leaders, who were engaged in ongoing efforts to defuse the insurgency.
Additionally, IRI carried out nationwide opinion research to help the respective ethnic communities' leadership identify potential areas of political compromise. IRI staff provided Macedonia's leaders with critical support throughout some of the most intense phases of the crisis. With the signing of the August 2001 Framework Agreement ending hostilities, IRI assisted the President's communications team in its development of an effective strategy to explain the complex and fragile peace accord to the public.
During 2002, IRI concentrated its assistance on preparing for the 2002 parliamentary elections. IRI's political party development program engaged the national-level party leadership on such topics as message development, campaign strategy and voter targeting. IRI conducted a year-long series of four public opinion surveys to assist parties in understanding and targeting groups of voters with specific concerns and in using that information to craft campaign strategy and message. The research also had the effect of steering parties away from the virulent nationalist rhetoric that had characterized previous campaigns by grounding parties in the issues of importance to real voters - unemployment and economic development.
Also for the 2002 elections, IRI conducted a comprehensive election observation mission. Three pre-election observation missions were conducted in June, July and August with more than 180 meetings with party, nongovernmental organization, and media representatives in 30 cities and towns across the country. The missions were designed to evaluate parties' contributions to an open and credible electoral process and to make recommendations to party leaders about how to improve the process within their organizations. A 30-member Election Day observation mission deployed in each electoral district.
By Election Day, it was clear that party leaders, whether they had met with previous IRI missions or not, were well-versed in the issues at hand and were working, on some level, to implement the recommendations that IRI had passed through party leadership. This concerted and consistent constructive engagement with party structures on the part of IRI had a definite impact in terms of making parties take a closer look at their activities at all levels, and contributed to the eventual positive electoral environment on September 15.
Finally, in cooperation with the Skopje-based BRIMA/Gallup and David Williams of Williams and Associates, IRI conducted the first-ever Election Day exit poll in Macedonia. By the close of the polls, BRIMA had surveyed a total of 9,321 voters at 150 out of Macedonia's 2,973 polling stations, the results of which were predictive of the final official results nationally to within 1 percent.
Throughout 2003, IRI provided strategic consultations to political party leaders while providing communications and organizational training seminars to parties at both the national and local level. IRI assisted the governing parties on techniques to ensure that they were taking an active role in explaining their government policies and programs to the public and taking credit for the government's success where appropriate. IRI also advised the opposition parties on strategies to position themselves as a viable, attractive alternative.
Throughout 2003 and early 2004, IRI devoted special attention to developing the parties' youth and women's auxiliaries. IRI conducted an ongoing series of training seminars and conferences for party youth and women's organizations paralleling the topics presented to the main party structures. In addition, IRI focused special attention on issue identification and advocacy among these key groups, both internally and externally, and the appropriate integration of such groups into local party structure and function.
After the tragic death of President Trajkovski in February 2004, IRI fielded an emergency election monitoring mission for both rounds of the April presidential election. IRI's efforts contributed to the overall stability of the election, by lending credibility to the results. IRI's presence across the country at polling stations also helped to diffuse potential flashpoints by providing an additional independent, international footprint.
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After year of work with political parties on election related trainings, the International Republican Institute (IRI) is now focused on long-term party building.
