Macedonia: Party of prime minister wins elections marred by violence
02 June 2008
Preliminary results show the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE coalition led by Prime Minister Nikola Grueski has won most votes in the Macedonian parliamentary elections held on 1 June. According to the results, published after 97 percent of the votes were counted, the VMRO-DPMNE coalition won 48.21 percent of the votes. This could mean that the coalition will receive a majority of the parliament’s 120 seats. The “Sun – Coalition for Europe” block led by the Social-Democratic Alliance of Macedonia is trailing behind with 23.19 percent of the vote. The country’s two ethnic Albanian parties also managed to secure representation: the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) won 11.23 percent of the vote, while rival Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) won 10.33 percent.
Elections were marred with violence and irregularities, mostly in the predominantly ethnic Albanian northwest of the country. Several shooting incidents took place, in which one man died and at least eight were injured. Shoot-outs took place both between the rival ethnic Albanian groups or in standoffs with the police. Twenty-one people were arrested.
Tensions between both ethnic Albanian parties have been high since the 2006 elections, when Gruevski picked the DPA as a coalition partner, despite it won fewer voter than the DUI. Both parties have accused each other and the police of the violence. Ali Ahmeti, leader of the DUI, held the DPA responsible for “provocations, violence and psychological terror.” On 12 May, his car was attacked during the election campaign, in what was allegedly an attempt to kill him. Menduh Thaci, leader fo the PDA, however, said the DUI had “staged the incident.” Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million inhabitants.
Due to the violence and rapports about fraud, 22 polling stations (1 percent of the total) had to be closed. The election commission has announced to repeat elections in those districts within the next two weeks. The elections, which were called after Macedonia’s governing coalition fell over the issues of recognition of Kosovo and Greece’s veto to give the country a NATO invitation, were supposed to prove Macedonia’s credentials to join the EU and NATO. However, upon claiming victory in the ballots, Gruevski said that while he regretted the violence, the vote was mostly fair and peaceful. Meanwhile, international observers have reacted in disappointment regarding the violent conduct during the election. Head of the EU mission in Macedonia Erwan Fouere stated “[w]e are deeply concerned by the many … corroborated reports of not only acts of intimidation, but also blatant violence, shooting, injuries to innocent people.” The OSCE commented that "expectations have not been met" when it comes to the vote.
