Reaction on the selection of new coat of arms and flag of the Municipality of Kisela Voda

municipal heraldry

At the session held on 10.06.2015, the Council of the Municipality of Kisela Voda decided on selection of designs for a new coat of arms and flag of the municipality. The Council selected the designs of the author Lasko Dzurovski.

Despite the negative heraldic opinion from the vice-president of the Macedonian Heraldry Society, Peter Gajdov, member of the committee as a heraldic consultant, the municipality adopted symbols that are heraldically and vexillologically incorrect.

The selected design for the coat of arms of the municipality does not meet the heraldic rules and standards, whose implementation was part of the competition as part of the criteria to be applied when selecting the best ranked design. Namely, the design does not conform to the heraldic rules of charges, divisions and ordinaries and thus can not be blazoned (heraldically described).

Additionally, parts of the flag of the Republic of Macedonia are used in the design. Although only parts of the flag are used and generally the terms of the contest and the paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the Law on Local Self-Government are not violated, this practice is strongly discouraged.

The selected design for the flag of the municipality does not meet the vexillological rules and standards, whose implementation was also part of the competition. Namely, the design is just a simple application of the coat of arms on a red cloth.

I sincerely hope that the municipality will announce a new competition in order to eliminate these shortcomings and will adopt new quality and above all heraldically and vexillologically valid designs.