Macedonian voters shun referendum on name change

An attempt to integrate the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia more closely into the west was struggling on Sunday, as hundreds of thousands of voters stayed away from a crucial referendum on changing the country’s name.

Foreign leaders including German chancellor Angela Merkel and US defence secretary Jim Mattis have all visited the Balkan state in recent weeks, seeking to persuade voters to pave the way for Macedonia’s entry into both the EU and Nato.

Greece struck a provisional agreement with Macedonia in July to withdraw Athens’ veto on its neighbour’s progress towards membership of both organisations, on the condition that it changed its name to “Republic of North Macedonia”.

As part of the deal to defuse the three decade-long dispute, Skopje agreed the name change to affirm that it did not imply a claim to Greek territory, while Athens officially recognised the Macedonian language and ethnicity.

But as of 5pm local time, only 29 per cent of the 1.8m eligible voters had taken part, following calls for a boycott from the country’s conservative opposition party and president Gjorge Ivanov.

“We want to be in the EU and Nato, but on our terms,” said Vladimir Kavadarkov, one of the leaders of a demonstration against the proposals that took place near a giant statue of Alexander the Great.

“We don’t want to come in with our heads bowed through a back door, we want to stand tall and come in through the front.”

While the referendum is consultative, rather than legally binding, a conclusive result would make it easier for the country’s government to push the opposition to back the constitutional amendments necessary for the name change to go through.

Macedonia has been plagued by political crisis, corruption, and mass emigration in the decade since Greece blocked its Nato accession at the 2008 summit in Bucharest.

But by mid-afternoon, a dance club-turned polling station in the centre of Skopje was relatively quiet, with people trickling in and out and voting without a wait.

“I voted for a better future,” said Goran Popovski, 50. “I don’t agree with the name change, but I voted for Nato and the EU and I don’t think I gave up that much.”

“Our government has to have courage to proceed with this,” even if the turnout is not high enough, added Dori Kimovala, a lawyer who voted Yes. “I am worried because most people are led by emotion on this issue.”

Nevertheless David Stephenson, a political consultant and former US diplomat, said the referendum could have legitimacy with as few as 600,000 votes — a third of those eligible to take part.

He said that since the country narrowly averted a civil war in 2001, the biggest number of votes for a single candidate or issue had been 550,000 in 2004: “If the referendum receives more votes than that, it can be a unifying factor.”

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