Macedonian Opposition Leader Claims Victory
July 6, 2006
"The citizens of Macedonia showed their maturity and made the right decision," leader of the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE party Nikola Gruevski told a post-election rally in Skopje following Wednesday's vote.
"Tonight we might celebrate for a while and then work is waiting for us," Gruevski said as party supporters took to the streets of the capital's downtown area.
Minutes earlier Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski accepted defeat.
"The opposition got the most votes and support of the citizens," said Buckovski, the leader of the Social Democratic Union (SDSM) which was the main party in his multi-ethnic governing coalition.
"I congratulated its leader Nikola Gruevski on the victory in a telephone call," said Buckovski.
Closely watched
Gruevski's party had said earlier that according to their estimates, VMRO-DPMNE won 55 of the parliament's 120 seats, ensuring the defeat of the governing coalition. The State Electoral Commission announced preliminary results of a portion of the votes counted pointing to victory of Gruevski's
party.
The parliamentary election was closely watched by Brussels, which accepted Macedonia as an EU candidate in December last year. NATO and the 25-nation bloc, which Skopje hopes to join in 2008 and
2012 respectively, had called for free and fair elections.
"These parliamentary elections are a key test of the political maturity of the country," said the EU's special representative in Macedonia, Erwan Fouere, as quoted by the private Makfax news agency.
Sporadic violence
The electoral authorities had earlier told AFP that the vote had been staged in "a democratic manner" despite fears of polling day unrest following sporadic violence during campaigning, mainly between two rival ethnic Albanian parties.
"The biggest fears of the international representatives and monitors -- violence, massive incidents or use of firearms -- did not come true," Makfax said in a commentary.
The election was also a test of the 2001 Ohrid peace deal which ended a seven-month armed conflict between Macedonia's Slav majority and ethnic Albanian minority and granted amnesty to Albanian rebel leaders on condition they put down their arms. Albanians comprise a quarter of Macedonia's population of less than two million.
The election was monitored by some 7,000 observers. Most were local but nearly 500 came from foreign non-governmental organizations. Foreign observers, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were expected to deliver their verdict on the polls later Thursday.
Boxers, actors and politicians
The old government was made up of Buckovski's own Social Democratic Union (SDSM) and an ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) headed by former Albanian guerrilla leader Ali Ahmeti (photo).
Gruevski, a 35-year-old former amateur boxer and stage actor turned economist, had campaigned on a pledge to improve the economy of Macedonia, where unemployment runs at about 36 percent.
Voter turnout in the fourth general election since independence from Yugoslavia 15 years ago had been expected to be low as many Macedonians are already away on their summer holidays. But, according to political parties' estimates, between 60 and 64 percent of the electorate voted at polling booths across the country on Wednesday.
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is a landlocked country about the size of Wales, whose population is 64-percent Slav, 25-percent ethnic Albanian and 11-percent from other minorities.