Voting starts in Macedonian general elections
Monday, 2 June 2008
SKOPJE, June 1 (AFP): Polling stations opened Sunday in Macedonia for snap general elections triggered by political and ethnic troubles on the road to EU and NATO membership, and coming after a violence-marred campaign.
Voting by the electorate of almost 1.8 million started at 7:00 am (0500 GMT), and is to continue for 12 hours at nearly 3,000 polling stations across the tiny, landlocked former Yugoslav republic.
A record number of police were to be deployed for the parliamentary elections-the fifth in Macedonia since it gained independence from the former communist Yugoslavia in 1991.
Surveys suggest a solid win for outgoing Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's centre-right VMRO-DPMNE, ahead of the main opposition Social Democratic Union of Radmila Sekerinska, and two ethnic Albanian parties that have blamed each other for the pre-poll violence
But Gruevski, 37, is again likely to need the support of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), or their fierce rivals, the Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), to cobble together a government.
The DPA withdrew its support for his government in mid-March, protesting its failure to recognise Kosovo, an Albanian-majority Serbian province that declared its independence the month before.
Adding to the political turmoil was Greece's veto in early April of an invitation for Macedonia to join NATO, which along with European Union membership, was the government's main strategic goal.
Athens made the move because of a long-running row over the right to the name Macedonia, which is shared by a Greek province.
The polls will be observed by some 13,000 police, including rapid reaction and helicopter units, and more than 6,200 monitors, among them 464 from the international community.
Security force numbers were boosted after violence between the two main ethnic Albanian parties in which DUI blamed DPA for attacks on its offices and an "assassination attempt" on its leader Ali Ahmeti.
Voting by the electorate of almost 1.8 million started at 7:00 am (0500 GMT), and is to continue for 12 hours at nearly 3,000 polling stations across the tiny, landlocked former Yugoslav republic.
A record number of police were to be deployed for the parliamentary elections-the fifth in Macedonia since it gained independence from the former communist Yugoslavia in 1991.
Surveys suggest a solid win for outgoing Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's centre-right VMRO-DPMNE, ahead of the main opposition Social Democratic Union of Radmila Sekerinska, and two ethnic Albanian parties that have blamed each other for the pre-poll violence
But Gruevski, 37, is again likely to need the support of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), or their fierce rivals, the Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), to cobble together a government.
The DPA withdrew its support for his government in mid-March, protesting its failure to recognise Kosovo, an Albanian-majority Serbian province that declared its independence the month before.
Adding to the political turmoil was Greece's veto in early April of an invitation for Macedonia to join NATO, which along with European Union membership, was the government's main strategic goal.
Athens made the move because of a long-running row over the right to the name Macedonia, which is shared by a Greek province.
The polls will be observed by some 13,000 police, including rapid reaction and helicopter units, and more than 6,200 monitors, among them 464 from the international community.
Security force numbers were boosted after violence between the two main ethnic Albanian parties in which DUI blamed DPA for attacks on its offices and an "assassination attempt" on its leader Ali Ahmeti.