European Forum

Opposition Social Democrats make strong showing in Macedonia poll

On 5 June the opposition Social Democrats (SDSM) have made a strong showing in the general elections 2011 in Macedonia. Macedonia’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski declared victory in Sunday’s general elections. According to preliminary results, Gruevski is in line to be re-elected for a third term.

Macedonians voted for 123 legislators in six electoral districts. The preliminary data from the State Electoral Commission show that the ruling conservative VMRO DPMNE party of Nikola Gruevski has won 437,665 votes or 39 percent of the total, after all votes were counted. However, the main opposition Social Democrats, led by Branko Crvenkovski, significantly improved over their previous election score, winning 367,876 votes, or 32.78 percent. After polls closed, the centre-right VMRO DPMNE claimed victory in all six electoral districts over the Social Democrats.

“The VMRO DPMNE-led coalition has won these elections,” Gruevski told supporters late on Sunday. “This victory means that most citizens of Macedonia have recognised that the VMRO, even at a time of crisis and in the most difficult circumstances, knows how to deal with the country’s problems,” he added in a speech at the press centre in Skopje. In reaction, the opposition Social Democrats said that they are pleased because they expect their number of seats in the parliament to jump from 18 to 43. “The battle goes on, see you at the next elections,” said Gordan Georgiev, vice president of the Social Democrats. Branko Crvenkovski described the results of the early elections -  for which the SDUM had pushed for months - as a “great success” for his party.

Smaller parties
The poor showing of several smaller parties was unexpected. In the country’s Albanian bloc, the junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, of Ali Ahmeti has remained the strongest party. According to the State Commission, the party won 114,870 votes or 10.24 percent. Its rival the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, won only 66,055 votes or 5.89 per cent. The VMRO People’s Party and the United for Macedonia party were expected to snatch a significant portion of the right-wing electorate from the ruling VMRO DMPNE, but this did not turn out to be the case.

The elections were the seventh general elections since Macedonia became independent in the 1990s and followed six years in government of Nikola Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE party. More than 1.7 million people were eligible to vote and the turnout at the elections was over 63 percent. Despite the violence and tensions in the run-up to the elections, the voting passed peacefully. The elections were monitored by about 3,500 local and 330 international observers and no violent incidents or major irregularities were registered during the election day. “These elections have laid a cornerstone for a stable, democratic future,” said Roberto Battelli, the Special Co-ordinator to lead the short-term OSCE observer mission in Macedonia.

Talks on a forming a government are expected to begin shortly.

Sources: BBC; Aljazeera; Balkan Insight         Photo: Wikipedia by American Embassy at Skopje