Venice Commission - Report on Bicameralism

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North Macedonia

1.Has the country ever had a bicameral parliamentary (or congressional) system in the past? If so, in which period? Why was it decided to change into a unicameral system? Is there a public debate about changing to a bicameral system? What are the terms of the debate?

1) The Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia as independent country was adopted in 1991, providing unicameral Parliament. During socialism, when Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, three constitutions were adopted. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Macedonia from 1946 provided unicameral Assembly. The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia from 1963 introduced 5 “chambers”(sobor) of the Assembly: Republican chamber, Chamber of the delegates of the citizens in the municipalities, Educational-cultural chamber, Social-health chamber and Organizational-political chamber. The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia from 1974 introduced 3 chambers of the Assembly: Chamber of joint labor, Chamber of municipalities and Social-political chamber.
After the break-down of Yugoslavia, the new Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia from 1991, introduced unicameral Parliament, because of the small size of the country and its unitary character.
The debate about changing to a bicameral system was opened in 2005 by one political party of Macedonians and was repeated usually during electoral campaigns by few political parties of Albanian community in North Macedonia. Neither of these political parties were major ruling parties and the debate was not upheld by mainstream ruling political parties.
In 2005, the parliamentary group of Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Peoples’ Party (VMRO-NP) proposed constitutional amendments for introducing bicameral parliament consisted of Senate and House of Representatives. It was proposed Senate to be consisted of 20 Senators and House of Representatives of 120 MPs. Two senators would be elected in each of six electoral districts, six would be elected as representatives of minority communities and two would be elected by state universities and Macedonian Academy of Science and Art. The mandate of the senators would be 8 years. The Senate would elect members of the Constitutional court, Supreme Court, ambassadors, high officials in the Army etc. The introduction of Senate would mean that the House of Representatives will not carry procedure for double vote (voting by all MPS and voting by MPs from national minorities) that was introduced for certain issues with the constitutional amendments from 2001.
Beside this proposal, some political parties of Albanians in Macedonia proposed introducing bicameral parliament. The Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) stated that it demanded bicameral parliament, while its MPs were boycotting the Parliament in 2010. Also, the leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) during the campaign for parliamentary elections in 2014 and in 2016, stated that his party proposes bicameral system. In 2015 the leader of the new political party formed by members of DPA - Movements for reforms DPA, also stated that they will propose introduction of the bicameral parliament. The same idea was expressed by one MP from the Alliance of Albanians in 2022.

2.What is the population of the country? What is its size?

According to the 2021 census, the population in North Macedonia is 1.836.713. The size of the country is 25.713 km².

3.What form of state and form of government has the country? Please provide details with reference to relevant constitutional provisions. a) Unitarian or federal/regional/other form of decentralization; b) Parliamentary, presidential, semi-presidential or mixed

North Macedonia is unitarian country. According to the Art. 3 the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia is indivisible and inalienable. The system of organization of powers in North Macedonia is mixed. The president is elected on direct elections for fix term of office. He/she shares the executive power with the Government. But the President does not have many competencies, so the system fails in the category of semi-presidential systems where the Prime Minister prevails. The Government is elected by the Parliament and is accountable in front of the Parliament. The peculiarity of the system is that neither the President nor the Government can dissolve the Parliament, but the Parliament can dissolve itself with the majority vote. The characteristics of the system are regulated in several constitutional provisions.
According to the Art. 8 para 1 line 4, the fundamental value of the constitutional order of the Republic of North Macedonia is separation of state powers into legislative, executive and judicial.
According to the Article 80 the President of the Republic is elected in general and direct elections, by secret ballot, for a term of five years.
Article 84 enumerates the competences of the President. The President of the Republic of North Macedonia:
- nominates a mandator to constitute the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia;
- appoints and dismisses by decree ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives of the Republic of North Macedonia abroad;
- accepts the credentials and letters of recall of foreign diplomatic representatives;
- proposes two judges to sit on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Macedonia;
- proposes two members of the Republican Judicial Council;
- appoints three members to the Security Council of the Republic of North Macedonia;
- proposes the members of the Council for Inter-Ethnic Relations;
- appoints and dismisses other holders of state and public office determined by the Constitution and the law;
- grants decorations and honours in accordance with the law;
- grants pardons in accordance with the law; and
- performs other duties determined by the Constitution.

According to the Article 87 the President is held accountable for any violation of the Constitution in exercising his/her rights and duties. The procedure for determining the President of the Republic's answerability is initiated by the Assembly with a two-thirds majority vote of all Representatives. It is the Constitutional Court that decides on the answerability of the President by a two-thirds majority vote of all judges. If the Constitutional Court considers the president answerable for a violation, his/her mandate is terminated by the force of the Constitution.
According to the Article 88 executive power is vested in the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia. Article 89 regulates that the Government is composed of a prime Minister and Ministers. The Prime Minister and the Ministers cannot be Representatives in the Assembly.
According to the Article 90 the President of the Republic of North Macedonia is obliged, within 10 days of the constitution of the Assembly, to entrust the mandate for constituting the Government to a candidate from the party or parties which has/have a majority in the Assembly. Within 20 days from the day of being entrusted with the mandate, the mandator submits a programme to the Assembly and proposes the composition of the Government. The Government is elected by the Assembly on the proposal of the mandator and on the basis of the programme by a majority vote of the total number of Representatives.
According to Art 91 the Government and each of its members are accountable to the Assembly and the Assembly may take a vote of no-confidence in the Government.
The control on Government is performed also by parliamentary questions and interpellation. According to the Article 72 an interpellation may be made concerning the work of any public office-holder, the Government and any of its members individually, as well as on issues concerning the performance of state bodies.Interpellation may be made by a minimum of five Representatives.All Representatives have the right to ask a Representative's question.
According to the Article 71 the right to propose adoption of a law is given to every Representative of the Assembly, to the Government of the Republic and to a group of at least 10,000 voters.
Peculiarity of the system in North Macedonia is that parliament dissolves itself and no other body out of the Parliament can dissolve it. According to the Art. 63 the Assembly is dissolved when more than half of the total number of Representatives vote for dissolution.

4.How many members are in the lower house?

According to the Art. 62 of the Constitution, The Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia is composed of 120 to 140 Representatives. The Electoral Code regulates that 120 MPs are elected in six electoral units in the country and 3 MPs are elected in the three electoral units in the diaspora. So according to the Electoral Code 123 MPs can be elected, but whether the 3 MPs will be elected depends on obtained threshold. The three MPs from diaspora are elected if they obtain minimal votes that were needed for election of the MP in the electoral units in the country at the last parliamentary elections. Because this threshold was not fulfilled by any of the candidates in these three electoral units in the diaspora during the parliamentary elections held in 2016 and 2020, these three posts were not filled, so the Parliament from 2016 till now is consisted of 120 MPs.