The electoral code has once again become a battlefield between the government and the opposition. VMRO-DPMNE accused the opposition of a „coordinated blockade“ of the code, while SDSM fired back that the government wants a law „without any control over the votes of Macedonians living abroad.“ The old Balkan reflex: everyone accuses the other of blocking the very thing they all supposedly want.

Meanwhile, Levica tabled 47 amendments to the budget rebalance, demanding that the money be steered „toward the citizens, not toward the party interests of the government.“ So two battles are being fought at the same time - one over how the voting will work, the other over where the money will be spent. And both, as usual, are waged more loudly in press releases than at the negotiating table.

Interestingly, only a few days ago Prime Minister Mickoski stated that VMRO-DPMNE „accepts the proposals of SDSM and Levica“ on the code. If the proposals were accepted, why is the law still stuck? The answer, most likely, is that in Macedonian politics „I accept“ rarely means „I sign“ - between the statement and the vote there is always room for another round of conditions.

For the ordinary citizen, this whole show has one single point: the rules by which the next elections will be run are still unknown, and time is ticking. The electoral code is not a technical formality - it is the framework that decides whose vote counts for how much. When parties can't agree on those rules for months, that's not a sign of democratic thoroughness, but of each side calculating how the law can serve it. And the bill, as always, is waiting for the voter.